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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, October 31, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Happy Halloween Public Libraries--Paranormal Phenomenon Source: Star Beacon (Ashtabula, OH) Ashtabula library is still watched by deceased director "Ethel McDowell became the head librarian when the library opened in 1903. She was by far the longest-working employee of the library, dedicating 45 years of her life to the books and readers of Ashtabula.... She died shortly after her retirement in 1968, prompting library employees and visitors to claim she haunts the old building, moving objects, dropping books and making her opinions known. 'It seems like we get more activity from her when we make a significant change such as renovation or a change in a program which she may not approve. If I was to guess I would say she is proud of her library system and does not appreciate the changes we have made,' Library Director William Tokarczyk said." -- Public Libraries--Theft Source: Daily Item (Lynn, MA) Lynn librarian keeps wary that books on witchcraft, astrology go missing this time of year "The library has over 100 titles on these subjects listed in its bibliography index, but just over a dozen are currently available for borrowing. The other books were checked out by students of the black arts and never returned."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Seafood--Database Source: Monterey Bay Aquarium Foundation Seafood InfoCenter "The Seafood InfoCenter is a database designed to house information about wild-caught and farm-raised (aquaculture) seafood consumed in the United States and around the world. This site will serve as a platform for sharing fisheries and aquaculture knowledge. The Seafood InfoCenter intends to be a solid and consistent information base available to anyone who wants to learn more about seafood including: consumers, suppliers and restaurants, conservation organizations, resource managers, academics, students, industry associations and others. This comprehensive clearinghouse of seafood information is free to all users and we encourage you to submit new relevant materials." See also: Seafood Reports -- Folk Music--UK Source: English Folk Dance and Song Society English Folk Song Bibliography "This bibliography is intended to serve both as an introduction to the study of English folk song, and as a guide to the numerous collections of songs which exist in print and manuscript. It is intended to be of assistance both to students of the subject, and to those who wish to sing the songs. The annotations offer a very brief guide to the nature of each item." -- Public Policy--Glossary Source: The Urban Institute Urban Institute Policy Decoder "This glossary contains some of the terms used in the Urban Institute's publications and in policy debates more generally. The glossary is a work in progress and will be updated and expanded periodically." Saturday, October 30, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Public Records--United States Source: The Federal Judiciary Electronic Access Available to Criminal Case Files "Beginning November 1, 2004, all criminal case file documents available to the public at a courthouse also will be available remotely through the court's electronic access system. Remote electronic access to civil and bankruptcy case files has been available since 2001. Similar access in criminal cases was delayed while a pilot project involving 10 federal district courts and one court of appeals was conducted. A Federal Judicial Center study of the project determined the advantages and disadvantages of such access to criminal cases." -- Information Age Source: St. Petersburg Times The Truth Is Out There "What if we've mistaken information for knowledge? What if the advent of the Information Age has given people not only a better opportunity to spread truth, but misinformation?"
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Election 2004--Electronic Voting Source: California Voter Foundation Just Released, E-Voting And The 2004 U.S. Presidential Election: Top 25 Places To Watch "To make it easier for the public and the media to track electronic voting in this presidential election, CVF has compiled a list of the 25 most populous places in the country using e-voting. This list was compiled using data from state election web sites, the Census Bureau, Election Data Services' map, and the National Association of Counties' web site." -- Hurricanes--Map Source: US Agency for International Development Recent hurricanes in the Caribbean (PDF; 444 KB) Provides statistics as to people affected, agencies providing aid, etc. See also: The Caribbean: Hurricanes Fact Sheet #6 -- Military Issues--Bibliography Source: Air University Library The Future Extensive bibliography identifies books, documents, periodicals and Internet resources in these subject areas: Africa, Air Force, Air Warfare, Aircraft, Arms Control, Army, Asia and the Pacific, Coast Guard, Communications and Electronics, Computers, Engineering, Europe, Land Warfare, Latin America, Logistics, Marine Corps, Mexico, Middle East, Military Forces, NATO and the Atlantic Alliance, Navy, Sea Warfare, Strategic Planning, Strategy, Technology, Third World, United Nations, United States, Warfare, Weapons, Worldwide. Friday, October 29, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Library Portals Source: ASIS&T The October/November 2004 Issue of the Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science and Technology is Now Online It includes a special section devoted to library portals. From the intro, "The papers included in this special section are primarily based on presentations given through a Library Information and Technology Association (LITA) Internet Portals Interest Group full-day pre-conference held in June 2004 at the American Library Association annual conference." Articles include: + Portals In Libraries Amos A. Lakos + Portal Vision Amos A. Lakos + An Environmental Landscape Robert H. McDonald + Library Technology and Planning for Change Krisellen Maloney + MyUB: UB's Personalized Intranet Portal Hugh W. Jarvis + The Scholars Portal Project: A June 2004 Update Sarah Michalak and Mary E. Jackson + The Scholars Portal Project: The USC Perspective Marianne Afifi + Assessments and Outcomes Amos A. Lakos + Portal Implementation Issues and Challenges Eric Lease Morgan + Symposium Summary Roy Tennant and Sarah Michalak -- Research Libaries--Statistics Source: ARL Just Released, ARL Supplementary Statistics 2002?03 "The Association of Research Libraries is pleased to announce the availability of the ARL Supplementary Statistics 2002-03, a compilation of data that answers these questions about electronic resources. The percentage of the average library budget that is spent on electronic materials has increased more than fivefold, from an estimated 3.6% in 1992-93 to 25% in 2002-03. 111 ARL university libraries reported spending almost $230 million on electronic resources in 2002-03." -- Research Libraries Source: CRL Center for Research Libraries Welcomes 14 New Members -- Books--Photography Source: The British Library Catalogue of Photographically Illustrated Books "Use this website to search and view information and images from one of the world's most comprehensive collections of photographically illustrated books and texts in many languages relating to the history and development of photography, from 1839 to 1914." (via Peter Scott's Library Blog)
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Internet Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project (via DocuTicker) Just Released, The Internet and Democratic Debate: Wired Americans hear more points of view about candidates and key issues than other citizens "As wired Americans increasingly go online for political news and commentary, we find that the internet is contributing to a wider awareness of political views during this year's campaign season. The new survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project in collaboration with the University of Michigan School of Information survey belies those worries. It shows that internet users have greater overall exposure to political arguments, including those that challenge their candidate preferences and their positions on some key issues." Summary Direct to Full Text -- Poverty--United States--Statistics Source: BLS Just Released, A Profile of the Working Poor, 2002 -- Crime--United States--Statistics Source: BJS Just Released, Crime and the Nation's Households, 2003 Thursday, October 28, 2004
Resources of the Week A couple more for you to explore.... 1) Marine Science--Directory Source: International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange (IODE), Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), UNESCO OceanPortal If you're looking for data or information in the marine sciences, this searchable directory of more than 5,000 related websites is a good place to start. The directory is organized into several major areas, each of which is the top of a subject tree: + Information Resources -- libraries, literature, documents, repositories, directories, training & tools for librarians, discussion groups/news groups/listservers, e-repositories, expert directories + Data Resources files, images, software, data inventories, data centers, data products + Scientific Topics -- marine topics, including detailed descriptions of specific research projects within the topic + Agencies & Institutions -- government agencies, schools and laboratories, international scientific unions, etc. + Societies & Associations -- NGOs, professional societies, conservation and environmental groups, marine science library societies and associations + Administration, Conservation & Policy -- conventions/treaties/laws, coastal zone management, marine protected areas + Commerce & Trade -- commercial fishing equipment/services, maritime industry + Miscellaneous -- careers/employment funding sources, language translators Scroll down the front page to see the latest links that have been added to the directory, or click on New Listings on the navigation menu at the top. If you click on Hot Listings, you'll see a page of links to those directory entries that have been accessed most often. There's also an Editor Pick link, where you can see resources that have been culled out by the site's (human) editors. Each directory entry consists of a record that contains some or all of the following: the resource's title, URL, a brief description, top-level category or categories (as listed above), date the resource was added to the directory, a contact name and e-mail address. Registered users can write a review or rate the resource. (If you register -- which is free -- you can maintain a list of links to "favorite" resources. A link at the bottom of each entry allows you to e-mail the resource entry to a friend or colleague. Got a website you think belongs here? You can add it by clicking on the List Your Site link on the top navigation menu when you've browsed to the level of the subject tree where you think it belongs. A form is displayed that allows you to enter the information. A simple keyword search box is available at the top of the home page, but you may want to take advantage of the site's Power Search page, which features a dropdown menu that allows you to confine your search to one of the main categories of links as detailed above -- i.e., Administration, Conservation & Policy; Agencies & Institutions; Commerce & Trade; Data Resources; Information Resources; Scientific Topics; Societies & Associations; and Miscellaneous. Most of these categories are subdivided by specific subject area, country, type of data, etc. The search engine indexes html files, MS-Word (.doc) documents, Acrobat PDF (.pdf files) and PHP files. -- -- 2) Library of Congress--Webcasts Source: Library of Congress CyberLC There's always something interesting going on at the Library of Congress, but it's impossible to take advantage of every single event. Even if you live in the Washington, D.C. area, you can't really abandon the day job to go running off to LC every time you want to hear a public policy speaker or listen to an author read from his or her work. But you can catch at least some of these events after the fact, at your convenience via CyberLC, an archive of webcasts from LC happenings. Choose from the recent webcasts on the main page, or explore the various offerings under Lectures, Events, Conferences and Interviews. You'll need RealPlayer to view these webcasts. Transcripts are available for some of the events. The archive is keyword searchable. Some events archived here would be especially interesting to information professionals: + 2004 FLICC Forum on Information Policies: "E-Competencies for E-Government: Changing Role of the Federal Information Profession" + Inside the Library with Kurt Maier: "Senior Cataloger and longtime docent at the Library of Congress, shares a personal perspective on the Library's historic buildings and collections." + Library and Information Science Education in North America: Bridging the Gulf Between Education and Practice: "R. David Lankes (Syracuse University) chairs a panel on the ongoing tension in the library and information science (LIS) field between the demands of preparing professionals and the forward-looking research mission of many of today's LIS programs." + Stewardship in the Digital Age: Roles and Issues for Libraries for Preserving Our Cultural Heritage: "Meg Bellinger of Yale University explores the development and evolution of the digital repository and how digital preservation or archiving in the repository environment fundamentally differs from the purposes of preservation services in the past attempts to refine definitions."
Professional Reading Shelf Federated Search Source: The Exponent Federated Search Comes to Purdue University "Michael Fosmire, associate professor of library science, said that the lack of depth and reliability in Google's search results should make students wary. To help give students access to information that has gone through some process of peer review, Fosmire assisted the library in creating a 'megasearch' tool." -- Online Information Source: Science Advisory Board Scientists Frustrated with Limited Access to Full-Text Documents "While scientists often cite staying abreast of developments in their field as the most common reason for reading scientific literature, it is by far from the only reason. 'Scientists perceive their ability to access scientific and medical literature almost as an unalienable right of their profession,' observes Tamara Zemlo, Ph.D., MPH, Director of The Science Advisory Board. The Internet has reinforced this perception by increasing the speed and ease by which these searches can be conducted." Thanks to OCLC Abstracts for the news tip. -- Digital Preservation--United Kingdom Source: JISC JISC Announces 1 Million Pounds Digital Preservation Programme "The Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC) announced today that it is making grants totalling more than 1 million pounds to nine UK educational institutions and their partners to support digital preservation and asset management in UK Higher and Further Education institutions." -- Divine Andrew 'Flip' Filipowski Source: The Business Ledger (IL) The Rise and Fall of a Dot-Com Pioneer From the where-are-they-now file. "In the 18 months since Andrew 'Flip' Filipowski's watched as his high-tech incubator-turned-integrator, Divine Interventures Inc., was sold in pieces at a bankruptcy auction, he has regained several of his former companies, created a new entity -- SilkRoad Technologies, Inc. -- and found new challenges and success in North Carolina.... RoweCom, Inc. sued Divine in early February 2003, charging that Divine had fraudulently transferred $73.7 million from RoweCom into its own accounts, according to court documents filed in Boston. RoweCom claimed that those transfers forced it to default on its duties to pay for magazine and journal subscriptions that its customers -- many of them universities and libraries -- had ordered and paid for. Both RoweCom and Divine were facing lawsuits at that time from a group of libraries and publishers and the New York attorney general. A settlement is now being hammered out in bankruptcy court. Divine has consistently denied any charges of fraud or mismanagement." See Also: Citing divine, AIP Wants Payment On Time (via LJ)
Search Briefs (via SEW Blog) + Yahoo Adds Local, Web, and Image Search to Mobile Platform Mobile/sms search seems to be everywhere these days.
Semantic Web Information Access--Desktop Source: Technology Review Learn About Haystack: The Universal Information Client With desktop access being a popular topic these days, here's research from MIT (an early version of some of the software is available) might be of interest. From the article, "Computer science professor David Karger hopes new software will transform the way people organize and search for information on their computers. The Haystack project, which Karger started in 1995 with former MIT professor Lynn Stein, offers more-intuitive ways of organizing files, far beyond the traditional categories of file name, type, or date." You can find the HayStack overview here. Screenshots here. Download (semantic web browser, an early release) here.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Digital Archives Source: UCSF Just Released, Long-concealed British tobacco industry documents released online: British American Tobacco Documents Archive From the news release, "UCSF released online (October 26) a million pages of formerly secret documents belonging to the world's second largest tobacco company (BAT). The papers, acquired legally but in the face of many BAT obstructions and delays, include documents related to international cigarette smuggling, BAT's efforts to thwart World Health Organization anti-smoking initiatives, and the on-going trial in the U.S. against six tobacco companies on federal racketeering charges for deceiving the public about cigarette smoking hazards." -- Human Resources--United State--Legislation Source: Towers Perrin Recently Updated, Towers Perrin U.S. Legislative Tracking Charts + Human Resources "These charts summarize selected federal legislation that would affect employee benefit programs. The bills included on the charts are based on judgments regarding the prominence of the issue, the likelihood of enactment, and the influence of the sponsors." + Retirement + Health and Welfare Many thanks to Stuart B. for the news tip. -- Federal Expenditures--United States Source: TRAC Latest Figures on Federal Expenditures: National Trends and Area Rankings -- Parliament--Canada Source: Library of Parliament New, About Officers of Parliament -- Information Technology--Salary Surveys Source: Computerworld Just Released, Computerworld's 2004 Salary Survey (18th Annual) Registation (free) is required to access the Interactive Salary Tool and to view some charts. -- Election 2004--Polling Places Source: People for the American Way Polling Place Locator "To find your polling place, learn on what type of machine you will cast your vote and get instructions on how to use that machine, type in your street address (for example, 123 Constitution Ave) and ZIP code in the spaces below and click the 'Find My Polling Place!' button. Your address will remain private."
Briefly + OverDrive Audio Books Platform Released + Readex (a division of NewsBank) launches the Digital Archive of Americana Wednesday, October 27, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries--United Kingdom Source: Kable's Government Computing Go the library online From the article, "The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has said an internet visit counts as a trip to the library. The DCMS has defined its position in a new set of public library standards, published on 25 October 2004. It says that efforts to develop an advanced standard for virtual or remote access to libraries have been put on hold due to technical issues, but that it expects the standards to evolve on a 'rolling basis'...In the meantime, it advises authorities to report the number of visits as one for every time an external user connects to a networked library resource, including a website, for any length of time or purpose. This is regardless of the number of pages viewed." We're glad to see (it makes sense) that the use of web-based tools and services that UK public libraries offer will now be considered "visits" to the libarary. It aligns well with our thinking that we need to demonstrate that the world of the library resources and the help of a librarian extends beyond the walls of a library building. See Also: Direct to New Public Library Standards -- Data-Mining--Humanities Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Mellon grant to fund project to develop data-mining software for libraries "The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is funding the two-year, nearly $600,000 multi-institutional project, which John Unsworth, dean of Illinois' Graduate School of Library and Information Science (GSLIS), will lead. In his winning project, titled 'Web-based Text-Mining and Visualization for Humanities Digital Libraries,' Unsworth expects to produce software "for discovering, visualizing and exploring significant patterns across large collections of full-text humanities resources in digital ibraries and collections." The collections he's focusing on are at Illinois, Indiana University, the University of Michigan, the University of North Carolina, Tufts University, the University of Virginia and other universities. In traditional 'search-and-retrieval' projects, scholars bring specific queries to collections of text and get back more or less useful answers to those queries, Unsworth said. 'By contrast, the goal of data-mining, including text-mining, is to produce new knowledge by exposing unanticipated similarities or differences, clustering or dispersal, co-occurrence and trends.'" -- Scholarly Publication--Latin Americans Source: National Science Foundation (via DocuTicker.com) Latin America Shows Rapid Rise in S&E Articles From the press release: "The number of science and engineering (S&E) articles credited to Latin American authors almost tripled in the 13-year period from 1988-2001, significantly outpacing authors of other developing regions in the world. The output of Latin American authors grew by about 200 percent, by far the highest rate of increase during the period." + Read the report [PDF] -- Wikipedia More on the Wikipedia More press for the Wikipedia. Noted UK info pro and search guru, Phil Bradley is quoted. He says, "'Theoretically, it's a lovely idea,' says librarian and internet consultant Philip Bradley, 'but practically, I wouldn't use it; and I'm not aware of a single librarian who would. The main problem is the lack of authority. With printed publications, the publishers have to ensure that their data is reliable, as their livelihood depends on it. But with something like this, all that goes out the window.'" As I've said before, one of these days (when I find some time) I'll share my Wikipedia experience. I'll also remind you that several years ago we read about how the Open Directory Project (DMOZ) was going to be the greatest directory that man ever created. Today, well, it's not what was promised (and that's putting it mildly). Finally, I (Gary) would like to briefly comment on a quote from journalist and author Dan Gillmor. He says, "I don't think anyone is saying Wikipedia is an absolute replacement for a traditional encyclopedia. But in the topics I know something about, I've found Wikipedia to be as accurate as any other source I've found." That's fine Dan, as a journalist you understand something about info quality/authority and REALIZE that other tools exist and where to find them. However, what about all of the Wikipedia users who consider it THE source. Seems like another example of why teaching info skills is so important. Also, since anyone can download Wikipedia data and have it included in a web engine, how do we know that the site owner is constantly downloading the updates and changes? See Also: ResourceShelf's Steven Cohen shares some thoughts on LibraryStuff See Also: Editors Coming to Wikipedia? -- Open Access Source: ARL Just Released, FAQ: Enhanced Public Access to NIH Funded Research Written by ARL's Prue Adler, Associate Executive Director, Federal Relations and Information Policy
Briefs + LexisNexis Creates Federal Agency Information System LexisNexis has been selected to "create and maintain an information system for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). Under the contract terms, LexisNexis will create and maintain a Web-enabled, Web-accessible, fully searchable database for the storage and retrieval of CFTC's historic legislative documents. This new award continues a relationship that began in 1979." + EBSCO Now Offers Searchable Cited References for The CINAHL Database
Special Events Belated Birthday Wishes to MedlinePlus!!! Congrats and kudos! ResourceShelf tries hard to mention new MedlinePlus health topic compilations as soon they're released. Also, the MedlinePlus weekly announcement list is wondeful. A must have "collection development" tool. It was a Resource of the Week in January.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Intellectual Property--United States--Statistics Source: BJS Just Released, Intellectual Property Theft, 2002 -- Media Access to Information Source: Reporters Without Borders Released Today, Third Annual Worldwide Index of Press Freedom "Reporters Without Borders announces its third annual worldwide index of press freedom. Such freedom is threatened most in East Asia (with North Korea at the bottom of the entire list at 167th place, followed by Burma 165th, China 162nd, Vietnam 161st and Laos 153rd) and the Middle East (Saudi Arabia 159th, Iran 158th, Syria 155th, Iraq 148th)...Reporters Without Borders compiled the index by asking its partner organisations (14 freedom of expression organisations in five continents), its 130 correspondents around the world, as well as journalists, researchers, jurists and human rights activists, to answer 52 questions to indicate the state of press freedom in 167 countries (others were not included for lack of information). Region reports (PDF docs) are also available for: + Africa + Americas + Asia + Europe and former USSR + Middle East ++ How the index was compiled -- Medicare Source: Kaiser Family Foundation New, Talking About Medicare and Health Coverage "This new, online consumer guide helps people on Medicare and their family members and caregivers to make informed decisions about their health care." -- Brain/Nervous System Source: Society for Neuroscience Brain Facts (PDF; 984 KB) "Brain Facts is a 52-page primer on the brain and nervous system, published by the Society for Neuroscience." Intended for "a lay audience interested in neuroscience". See also: Brain Briefings ("A series of two-page newsletters explaining how basic neuroscience discoveries lead to clinical applications.") See also: Brain Backgrounders ("An online series of articles that answer basic neuroscience questions.") -- Legal Information Documents in the News Source: JURIST Updated, A New Version to JURIST is Now Online!!! This wonderful site with breaking legal related news, direct links to full text legal docs (in the news) and much more has a new look. They even offer a guide to law/legal webcasts (great idea)! Congrats to Professor Bernard Hibbitts and his team. This is one great resource. Make sure to spend some time with this site. Btw, Paper Chase, a blog from JURIST that is CONSTANTLY updated remains online. It was a Resource of the Week in February.
Search Briefs (via SEW Blog) + On The Search Habits of the Web Searcher Note: This will be of special interest to those of you who conduct web search training. ++ Is This the New Look of MSN Search? ++ Google Acquires Satellite Image Software Firm Note: We've also linked to a couple of web-based apps that are very cool! Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Access to Information--United States Source: GCN Nuclear Regulatory Commission Removes Docket Database From Web Another Invisible Web database (temporarily?) says goodbye. From the article, "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission yesterday suspended public access to its online docket, following reports that terrorists could use information from the database to steal radioactive materials and make dirty bombs. NRC spokesman Dave McIntyre said the agency would keep the Agencywide Documents Access and Management System offline for about three weeks while employees check its content for information terrorists could use. After the review, NRC will begin restoring the ADAMS information, McIntyre said. The agency also suspended access to documents concerning the planned Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste repository in Nevada." See Also: Official NRC News Release and while we're talking NRC, a new database: "Yucca documents available on Internet" (via Las Vegas Sun) "The Licensing Support Network database, which compiles the millions of documents included in the Energy Department's license application for the nuclear waste dump, is part of a multimillion-dollar investment in technology by the department. It is modeled after popular search engines that allow users to scan documents based on the precision of terms within the documents." -- National Library and National Archives of Canada Source: National Library and National Archives of Canada Report on Plans and Priorities for 2004-2005 The 2004-2005 Report on Plans and Priorities for the National Library of Canada and the National Archives of Canada. -- British Library Source: BL Preserving the UK's Theatrical Heritage The Arts and Humanities Research Board (AHRB)/British Library Theatre Archives Project team at the University of Sheffield aims to complete the archive and raise awareness of the Act. The Library wants copies of plays as they were performed rather than published editions and the team are approaching companies and stage managers to check their stores for discarded scripts.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Inc. The Inc. 500 2004 "America's Fastest Growing Companies." The Top 25 only. The complete list will not be available online until November 22nd. -- Philanthropy--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: The Chronicle of Philanthropy Highlights: Philanthropy 400 "Giving to the nation's 400 most-successful fund-raising groups rose by a total of 2.3 percent last year, a sign that charities are beginning to see a recovery from 2002, when the organizations on The Chronicle's annual Philanthropy 400 suffered a loss of 1.2 percent." The complete report is available online for a fee. -- Transportation--Canada Source: Transport Canada Library New, Canadian Transportation Research Gateway "The Canadian Transportation Research Gateway (CTRG) is a collection of Web resources on transportation research in Canada. It is intended to provide access to evaluated websites, through a single gateway, for researchers, students, government, and industry." -- State and Local Goverments--United States--Employees Just Released, 2003 Annual Survey of State and Local Government Employment and Payroll Summary ||| Direct to Full Text -- Genetics--Glossary Source: National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms "The National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) created the Talking Glossary of Genetic Terms to help people without scientific backgrounds understand the terms and concepts used in genetic research. Simply click on the term of interest to open a page with a wealth of information, including the term's pronunciation, audio information, images and additional links to related terms. Students, teachers and parents will find the glossary an easy-to-use, always available learning source on genetics." Monday, October 25, 2004
RSS Factiva Begins Offering "Campaign Issue" RSS Feeds The RSSification of content continues, this time from a major online info service. From the announcement, "Targeting the U.S. government sector, this free RSS feed will continuously update the campaign issues being reported, enabling users to view a three-paned window that allows them to quickly scan campaign issue headlines. If they see an update or issue that interests them, they can easily click on the link to read the entire story." These feeds use web-based content so you don't need a Factiva subscription to read the full text. Four feeds are available: + Jobs & Economy + Health Care + War In Iraq + Budget & Taxes You can read the headlines via the Factiva site or place the "headline only" feeds directly into your aggregator. and while we're on the topic of RSS... News Weblogs Say Hello to MetroFeed Here's a new service, it looks like an early beta, that aggregates RSS feeds from "locally" oriented blogs (and other news sources) onto a single page. Sort by source or by time. Pages also contain local weather and other news from the Blogosphere. Each feed needs more sources but it's an interesting idea and a site to watch. Yes, you can also get an RSS feed for each city MetroFeed. (-: It sounds very similar to what Blake and Steven have offered up at LISFeeds (library and info science blogs) for a long time. You can also accomplish the same type of service (with more mainstream news content) via the 150,000+ "topic pages" at Topix.net and/or placing one of more of their "topic feeds" into your aggregator. MetroFeeds' are available at the moment for: + Los Angeles + New York + San Francisco + Seattle + Chicago + San Diego + Washington, DC + Toronto + London
Professional Reading Shelf RFID Source: ACM Queue The Magic of RFID This excellent article asks the question, "Just how do those little things work anyway?" -- Information Standards Source: NISO New Newsletter, NISO Newsline "A monthly alert featuring news about NISO's activities and crisp, timely reports on significant developments, events, and trends in the information standards world." Subscription info (it's free) is located at the bottom of the Newsline page. -- The Internet Archive Source: Berkman Center Internet Archive Founder Brewster Kahle Wins IP3 Award The award was given to BK by Public Knowledge. Congrats to Brewster. -- Librarians--Awards Source: The Columbian (Clark County, WA) ACLU salutes library official's career "Long before the Internet, there was President Nixon. They were bookends for Candy Morgan's library career, which was recognized this weekend with the highest honor from the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington. Morgan received the group's William O. Douglas Award for outstanding and sustained support of civil liberties."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Crime--United States--Statistics Source: FBI Just Released, Crime in the United States 2003 (Uniform Crime Reports) -- Customs Enforcement--United States--Statistics Source: TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse)/Syracuse University Just Released, DHS-Customs Enforcement "TRAC has just released the latest information on the enforcement of U.S. Customs laws. More re-shuffling of DHS personnel means that enforcement of customs laws is now divided between Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Differential growth rates in staffing indicate that priority has been given to covering the movement of goods (customs inspectors) over that of people (immigration inspectors and border patrol agents). The intense focus on drugs continues after 9/11, but growth has leveled off." To see what is happening in your district, follow the District Enforcement link. -- Cyber Security--Surveys Source: National Cyber Security Alliance New Report, The AOL/NCSA Online Safety Study Summary ||| Complete Report -- Population--United States Source: U.S. Census Slide Presentation: The Foreign-Born Population in the United States: 2003 HTML Version ||| PowerPoint Version -- Workplace--Canada--Statistics Source: Statistics Canada New, Workplace and Employee Survey Compendium A summary is also available.
Search Briefs (via SEW Blog) + Yahoo and Adobe Announce a Partnership + New Shopping Engine: Cairo.com + Google: A Behind-the-Scenes Look (and other Lectures)
Briefly + Hoover's Expands its U.K. and Canada Offerings + Visual Sciences Announces Strategic Investment and Licensing Agreement with In-Q-Tel + CrossRef Adds New Services and Expands to New Content Areas Sunday, October 24, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Science and Technology References--Reviews Source: YPB Library Services (Baker & Taylor) E-STREAMS Monthly online journal offering "Electronic reviews of Science & Technology References covering Engineering, Agriculture, Medicine and Science." HTML or PDF. Searchable archive available. "E-STREAMS is also available via listserv in two formats: text and PDF." -- Presidential Libraries Source: AP After delay, false start, Lincoln Library opens "Hundreds of history buffs joined state officials earlier this month to celebrate the opening of the mammoth three-story, state-of-the-art facility, home to the Illinois State Historical Library and its 12 million items, including 47,000 Lincoln artifacts. There are six miles of bookshelves inside and room for 258,400 reels of microfilm, along with reading rooms, research areas, classrooms and conference rooms. The goal is to preserve the artifacts and make them more accessible to scholars."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Gardening--United States Source: USDA/The United States National Arboretum USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map Click on any area of this interactive version of the USDA's Plant Hardiness Zone Map to display a close-up view of that region. See also: Cold Hardiness Ratings for Selected Woody Plants -- Think Tank Documents--Database Source: The Heartland Institute PolicyBot "PolicyBot is the Internet's most extensive clearing-house for the work of free-market think tanks, with more than 12,500 studies and commentaries from over 350 think tanks and advocacy groups. To search the PolicyBot database, navigate through the topic list on the left, or use the form below to specify keywords or the name of an author or publisher. You can also search for a specific document number if you know it, or for all documents added during a specified time period." -- Air Power--Bibliography Source: Air University Library Air Power Doctrine (Updated) "Basic air doctrine deals with the phenomenon of flight, with the new relationships that exist as a result of hitherto unrealized speeds, range, mobility, and flexibility, and their application to the principles of war, such as those of mass, dispersion, and surprise, as well as to their application to the principles of peace, such as those of friendly association, distribution of economic wealth, and rendering of service." Extensive biliography of books, periodicals, Internet resources includes these sections: - General Information: Basic Doctrine Manuals - General Information: Bibliographies - Airpower Theory - History and Development - World War I /Post-War Period - World War II /Post-War Period - Korean War/Post-War Period - Vietnamese Conflict - Airpower Doctrine in the Late 1970's and 1980's - The Gulf War and Doctrine in the 1990's - Into The 21st Century -- Smokefree Ordinances--United States Source: American Nonsmokers' Rights Foundation Smokefree Ordinance Lists "The ANR Foundation is pleased to announce the October 2004 quarterly update to the lists of U.S. municipalities and states with 100% smokefree laws. Please note that these smokefree lists reflect only those laws that are in effect and that result in entirely smokefree enclosed workplaces, restaurants, and/or bars without exemptions. Laws that allow for separate ventilation, size exemptions, or smoking rooms are not included on the ANR Foundation 100% smokefree lists. There are now 1,811 U.S. municipalities with some sort of local clean indoor air law, 336 of which provide 100% smokefree protection for private workplaces/government buildings, restaurants, and/or bars." Lists in PDF format. Saturday, October 23, 2004
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Instant Messaging--Baseball Source: MLB.com The fans' new know-it-all buddy "(M)illions of people who love AOL Instant Messenger as well as Major League Baseball now can simply send an IM to screen name 'MLB' -- and be IM'd right back with continuously updated news, scores, stats, multimedia, games, polling and more from MLB.com." Cool! -- Indutrial Robots Source: United Nations Economic Commission for Europe World Robotics 2004 From the report: "Worldwide investment in industrial robots up 19% in 2003. In first half of 2004, orders for robots were up another 18% to the highest level ever recorded. Worldwide growth in the period 2004-2007 is forecast at an average annual rate of about 7%. Over 600,000 household robots in use--several millions in the next few years." + Read the report [PDF] -- Cigarettes--Advertising Source: Federal Trade Commission Federal Trade Commission Cigarette Report for 2002 From the press release: "The Federal Trade Commission's annual report on cigarette sales and advertising shows the six largest cigarette manufacturers spent $12.47 billion on advertising and promotional expenditures in 2002, an 11 percent increase from the $11.22 billion spent in 2001. The industry's total expenditures were the most ever reported to the Commission, even though combined spending on newspaper, magazine, outdoor, point-of-sale, and direct mail advertising declined from the previous year's level. The major manufacturers also reported that they spent $74.2 million in 2002 on advertisements directed to youth or their parents that were intended to reduce youth smoking. The report also noted that the number of cigarettes sold or given away decreased by 3.7 percent from 2001 to 2002, while certain categories of advertising and promotional expenditures increased significantly." + Read the report [PDF]
Professional Reading Shelf Audio Books netLibrary Announces New Audio Book Program for Libraries This is a great idea. The new service will allow patrons (who have access to netLibrary) to search for and listen to audio books via the web. Books will be provided by Recorded Books. -- Libraries--Iraq Source: Internet Librarian International The Story of the Cemetery of Books A presentation (delivered earlier this month) by Dr. Saad B. Eskander, Director General, Iraq National Library and Archive. + Damages + Cleaning & Reorganising + Contact Information -- Special Collections--Lending Practices Source: Rare Books and Manuscripts Section, ACRL Guidelines for Borrowing and Lending Special Collections Materials for Exhibition "These guidelines are written to encompass the needs of as wide a range of institutions and materials as possible. Although this document can offer no specific guidance in the matter, it is assumed that individual institutions will use common sense in applying these guidelines, taking into consideration such factors as rarity, fragility, and monetary value of the material being requested for exhibition.... Although the policies and practices of a number of the largest libraries in the United States, including the Library of Congress and the New York Public Library, were used to formulate these guidelines, it is assumed that smaller institutions will find these guidelines flexible and useful for their needs." Friday, October 22, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Personal Archives Memex Source: Microsoft Research We've tracked down a couple of the papers from The First ACM Workshop on Continuous Archival and Retrieval of Personal Experiences (CARPE '04) that took place last week in New York City. + "Total Recall: Are Privacy Changes Inevitable?" More about the "Total Recall" project. + Passive Capture and Ensuing Issues for a Personal Lifetime Store A new paper by members of the MyLifeBits team at Microsoft Research. -- Sound Archives Source: BL The British Library's Sound Archive Wins Award "The Sound Archive's public on-line catalogue is the largest in the world, including information on over 3½ million recordings. In 2003 it celebrated the 50th anniversary of the UK pop charts with a hugely popular audio exhibition providing playback access to all 918 no.1 hits since 1953. It enjoys excellent relations with the UK record industry which deposits all new products in the Archive." -- Professional Reading Shelf Librarianship Source: CILIP Selected Articles from the November Issue of CILIP's Library + Information update are Now Online + The Three Stages of library search by OCLC's Lorcan Dempsey + Phil Bradley's Internet Q&A
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Middle East--Internet Resources Source: C&RL News The Middle Eastern world: Starting points for research An annotated webliography by Karen Evans, a librarian at Indiana State University and Brad Coon, a librarian at Montana State University. -- Critical Infrastructure--United States Source: CRS (via FAS) New Report, Critical Infrastructure and Key Assets: Definition and Identification -- Higher Education--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes/Princeton Review Two New Lists + America's Most Connected Campuses + America's Most Entrepreneurial Campuses Thursday, October 21, 2004
Resources of the Week Two content-rich sites for you to explore this week. 1) Election 2004--Video Repository Source: Internet Archive Election 2004 Video Archive This is a fascinating and diverse collection of videos relating to the 2004 election. On Tuesday evening this week, some 423 movie files were available here -- everything from debate footage from C-SPAN to politically themed rap videos...and lots and lots of campaign advertising from the candidates themselves as well as various flavors of interest groups. There is a staggering amount of material here, and you could easily watch and watch and watch until your eyeballs drop out. Few of us have this kind of time, however, so you may want to start with some of the featured items on the top page, where you'll find a "spotlight movie" chosen by the Internet Archive staff, a collection of movies with "high batting averages" (e.g., "the percentage of people who downloaded the item after visiting its details page") and a list of the "most viewed films." Number one on this list Tuesday evening was Constitution Class taught by Michael Badnarik, the Libertarian Party candidate for president. Clicking on a film title does not immediately launch that film, which is a good thing, since we all know how large these video files can be. Instead, you are taken to a "details" page, which includes not only information about the director, producer, contacts, etc., but also clues you in as to file formats and sizes. If you're not sure you want to see the whole thing -- or simply don't have time -- you can look at thumbnail images and/or animated gifs. Reviews from other viewers are posted here as well, and metadata is available. You also have the option to browse for recent additions to the collection (an RSS feed is available) or browse the whole works alphabetically. You can also browse or search by keyword. An advanced search interface provides many more options, such as title, creator, date, date range, description, etc. If you have something you'd like to contribute to this "non-partisan public resource," uploads are welcome "from official candidates and their campaigns, journalists, students, and anyone with video materials related to the upcoming Presidential Election." All contributions "are provided under a non-commercial Creative Commons license." -- -- 2) Health Data--United States Source: Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) statehealthfacts.org We love one-stop-shopping sites here at ResourceShelf, and this is a gem. You'll find data on more than 400 different health topics for all 50 states here, accessible via an interactive map, by category or by keyword search. "Data presented on statehealthfacts.org are a selection of key health and health policy issues collected from a variety of public and private sources, including: original Kaiser Family Foundation reports, data from public websites, and information purchased from private organizations." New material is added as it becomes available, and a scrolling ticker on the top page displays live links to the most recent stuff. This resource has been around for awhile, but enhancements have increased its usability. "Updates have been made to more than 78 topics, including health insurance premiums and coverage, providing trend information for the 44 states that had declines in employer-based health insurance coverage between 2000 and 2003." You can easily access comparative data for the 50 states for a broad range of issues, including managed care, budgets, providers and service use, minority and women's health, HIV/AIDs, etc. Alternately, you can view individual profiles for each state. A "Tools" menu provides one-click access to such resources as raw data downloads, fact sheets, related KFF reports, and a glossary.
Professional Reading Shelf Cataloging Source: The Library of Congress Annual Report, Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team (BEAT) "[The] Bibliographic Enrichment Advisory Team (BEAT) which is responsible for initiating research and development projects to increase the value to users and end-users of cataloging products. The hallmarks of the BEAT efforts are to investigate and test new approaches to bibliographic access which transcend the normal and to do so by bringing together teams involving public, technical, and automation staff." -- ISBN Get ready for the new ISBN "The new 13-digit ISBN has been approved and plans are underway to transition to the new number industry-wide, world-wide by January 1, 2007. Find out how the expansion of the ISBN from 10-digits to 13-digits will impact your business and operations" A Librarian's ISBN FAQ
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents High Tech Industry--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Deloitte and Touche Just Released, The North American Technology Fast 500 "The fastest growing technology companies in North America (based on percentage revenue growth over five years, fiscal year revenues 1999-2003)." News Release/Top 10 ||| Full List and Company Info -- United Nations New, Finding UN Press Releases And Documents On The Web -- Election 2004 Source: Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives 109th Congress Nominees "The Official List of Nominees for the Office of U.S. Senator and for the Office of U.S. Representative in the 109th Congress." HTML ||| PDF -- Prescription Drugs--United States--Importation Source: Congressional Research Service (via Pierce Law's IP Mall) Prescription Drug Importation and Internet Sales: A Legal Overview -- Work--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Census Bureau Releases Information on Home Workers "Nearly 4.2 million people worked at home in 2000, according to Census 2000 tabulations, up from 3.4 million in 1990..." + Direct to Detailed Tables
Congrats and Kudos Web Directories BIOME Gateway Now Contains to More than 25,000 Entries BIOME: The Hub for Internet Resources in the Health and Life Science and a member of the Resource Discovery Network now contains more than 25,000 "hand-selected and evaluated, quality Internet resources." Congratulations to the BIOME team. ResourceShelf is a big fan of your site and all of the other RDN subject gateways. If you've never visited the RDN, you should! Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Medical Librarianship Source: MLA The October 2004 Issue of the Journal of the Medical Library Association is Now Online Papers include: + Academic health sciences library Website navigation: an analysis of forty-one Websites and their navigation tools + Evidence-based databases versus primary medical literature: an in-house investigation on their optimal use + Findings from the most recent Medical Library Association salary survey -- Research Libraries Source: ARL ARL Announces the 2004-2005 Board of Directors -- Library Organizations JISC Joins Digital Library Federation -- Access to Information Source: The Memory Hole/Michael Ravnitzky Restricted Collections at the Library of Congress "The Manuscript Collection at the Library of Congress houses many rare, often unique collections of documents. For various reasons - including privacy, copyright, and classification -- around 200 of these collections (or portions thereof) are restricted." -- Wikipedia Source: Red Herring Wiki wars "Wikipedia's [Founder] Mr. [Jimmy] Wales has said that next year he will begin using editors to review the web site's content for accuracy and allow users to rate contributions to the encyclopedia for their quality. 'It's complex because it's a social community, and feelings can be hurt,' said Mr. Wales, but he added that the change will be critical when Wikipedia content is put on more permanent media, such as CD-ROM disks." The article also includes a chart of Wikipedia's most "contentious entries."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Elections--United States Fast Facts: Presidential Election 2004 Plenty of interesting facts and stats with direct links to the reports where you can learn more. Stats include: + 217.8 million Number of voting-age U.S. residents. + 60%, Percentage of eligible voters who cast their ballots in the November 2000 election. + 72%, The percentage of citizens ages 65 to 74 who voted in the 2000 presidential election. -- Higher Education--United States--Tuition Source: College Board From the press release: "The College Board today announced that tuition increases are smaller than last year's increases, but they are still high by historical standards; all forms of student aid are growing rapidly, but loans outpaced grant aid for the second year in a row. Evidence of this, along with this year's average college prices and 2003-04 student aid data, are documented in reports released today, Trends in College Pricing 2004 and Trends in Student Aid 2004. The findings from a new companion report, Education Pays: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society, were also released." + Trends in College Pricing 2004 [PDF] + Trends in Student Aid 2004 [PDF] + Education Pays 2004 [PDF] -- Internet Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project Just Released, Data memo on the use of online reputation and rating systems "Twenty-six percent of adult internet users in the U.S. have rated a product, service, or person using an online rating system. That amounts to more than 33 million people. These systems, also referred to as 'reputation systems,' are interactive word-of-mouth networks that assist people in making decisions about which users to trust, or to compare their opinions with the opinions expressed by others. Many Web sites utilize some form of this application, including eBay, Amazon, Moviefone, and Amihot." -- High Tech--Canada--Lists & Rankings Source: Deloitte & Touche Recently Released, Canada Techology Fast 50 2004 "The 50 fastest growing Canadian technology companies, based on percentage revenue growth over a five-year period. This is the only award specifically for technology companies in Canada." Background Direct to 2004 Rankings -- Health Industry--United States--Lists and Rankings Source: Medical Imaging Top 15 Connected Healthcare Facilities 2004 -- Auto Theft Source: Highway Loss Data Institute/Insurance Institute for Highway Safety Cadillac Escalade and Nissan Maxima Are Top Theft Targets "The 2002-03 model Cadillac Escalade EXT, a luxury pickup, and the 2002-03 model Nissan Maxima, a midsize sedan, have the highest theft claim rates among newer passenger vehicles. The Escalade and Maxima have theft claim rates 7 to 8 times the average for all cars. These are the latest insurance theft loss results for passenger vehicles 1 to 3 years old published by the Highway Loss Data Institute (HLDI), an affiliate of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety." -- Birds--United States--Ecology Source: National Audubon Society State of the Birds USA 2004 "This report sums up the status of 654 bird species native to the continental United States according to the country's four major types of natural habitat--grass, shrubs, trees, and water. Urban habitat, which is increasing more rapidly than any other type, is also included; the ability of birds to adapt to it has become a major factor for their survival.... 'The State of the Birds' paints a disturbing picture. Almost 30 percent of North America's bird species are in 'significant decline." See press release: Audubon "State of the Birds" Report Reveals America's Birds Are in Trouble High-resolution bird images
Citation Indexing Source: ISI + Science in Switzerland, 1999-2003 + Computer Science & Engineering: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003 + U.S. Universities with Highest Concentrations in Mathematics, 1999-2003 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Developmental Biology + Top 20 institutions in Agricultural Sciences Tuesday, October 19, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Information Seeking Source: Information Research A New Issue of Information Research is Now Online (Vol. 10 No.1, Oct. 2004) This issues includes papers presented at ISIC 2004: the 5th Information Seeking in Context Conference, Dublin, Ireland, 1-3 September, 2004 Papers include: + Information behaviour that keeps found things found + Choosing people: the role of social capital in information seeking behaviour + A new model of information behaviour based on the Search Situation Transition schema. + From information behaviour research to the design of information systems: the Cognitive Work Analysis framework + Talking about the problem: a content analysis of pre-search interviews -- RFID Source: News.com RFID, coming to a library near you From the article, "Some argue that libraries are ahead of the pack and that the lesson they learn could prove instructive to others. 'Libraries are much further along with using RFID in a consumer environment than anybody else,' said Jim Lichtenberg, an IT consultant to libraries. 'They represent a wonderful test-bed in which to work through the issues of RFID because they have such a profound concern about the rights of their patrons.'" -- Government Printing Office Academic Libraries GPO Presents Southern Oregon University Library Of The Year Award "'Southern Oregon University, and especially our library faculty, staff and students, are being recognized nationally for their innovation in public service, and the University could not be more thrilled with this honor,' said Southern Oregon University President Elisabeth Zinser. 'I want to personally thank the Government Printing Office for this prestigious honor. The creation of the Southern Oregon Digital Archives exemplifies our long tradition of stewardship and accessibility to an impressive and growing collection of government documents at the Hannon Library,' Zinser said." -- Libraries--Research--African Americans Source: Miami Herald African-American Research Library: Vision fulfilled "The African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, 2650 Sistrunk Blvd. near Fort Lauderdale, one of three such establishments in the United States providing access to black literature and culture, is fulfilling its mission on its second anniversary, according to founder Samuel Morrison, former director of the Broward County Library System." -- Health Information Source: CBC Internet-based health information may be hazardous: study "People with chronic diseases ought to pay more attention to what their doctor tells them rather than relying on advice from the internet, according to a new study. Researchers at University College London reviewed clinical trials that measured the effectiveness of computer-based tools called Interactive Health Communication Applications...The review appears in the October issue of the Cochrane Collaboration, an international organization that evaluates medical research." -- Library Management Now Available: Free (One Week Only) Full Text Access to Three Recent Issues of + Library Management Access is provided via Emerald's Journal of the Week program. Articles include: + Disruptive technologies: what future universities and their libraries? (Issue 6/7) + The power of influence: what affects public library staff's attitudes to the Internet? (Issue 6/7) + Content in institutional repositories: a collection management issue (Issue 6/7) + View Managing fee-based public library services: values and practices (Issue 6/7) + Managing the information revolution: library management, the control of prescriptive technologies, and the future of librarianship (Issue 4/5) + Library weblogs (Issue 4/5) + Baby Boom generation librarians (Issue 4/5) -- Open Access Source: The Independent US Public Library of Science launches rival to 'The Lancet' From the article: "A major new 'open access' journal for medicine is launched today, putting it in direct competition with the established publications in this lucrative area including Reed Elsevier's The Lancet. The Public Library of Science (PLoS), a US-based not-for-profit organisation, is behind PLoS Medicine, which it said was 'the most significant international general medicine journal to emerge in over 70 years'. It is the second journal launched by PLoS, which established a biology publication last year."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes Just Released, The 200 Best Small Companies -- In the News Flu Shot Shortage--United States Source: CDC New Fact Sheets: + 2004-05 Flu Vaccine Shortage: Who Should Get Vaccinated + Flu Related Public Health Legal Preparedness Materials + Interim Estimates of Populations Targeted for Influenza Vaccination + Flu Activity: Reports & Maps + Pandemic Influenza Response and Preparedness Plan (via DHHS, 8/28/04) -- Professional Sports--United States--Labor Agreements Source: Street & Smith's SportsBusiness Journal League Collective Bargaining Agreements Direct links to collective bargaining agreements for Major League Baseball (PDF), the National Football League, the National Hockey League, the National Basketball Association and the Canadian Football League. See also: U.S. Sports Commissions (directory) -- Education--United States Source: ACT Recently Released, Crisis at the Core: Preparing All Students for College and Work From the press release: "Even with a diploma in hand, many high school graduates do not have all of the skills to succeed in college-level coursework or workforce training. This is the conclusion of a new report from ACT, titled Crisis at the Core: Preparing All Students for College and Work. Among the findings, only 22 percent of the 1.2 million high school graduates who took the ACT Assessment in 2004 achieved scores that would deem them ready for college in all three basic academic areas--English, math, and science." + Read the report [PDF] -- Europe--Politics--Bibliography Source: Air University Library Politics in Central Europe Since 1945 New bibliography includes Internet resources, CDROMs, books, periodicals. Monday, October 18, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf Librarians Source: The Virtual Chase Book Review: The Librarian Oh no, here we go again. Thanks to Genie for letting us know about a NYT book review that has some (and incorrect) things to say about libraries and librarians. We're trying to stay calm after reading this, but it's tough. -- Digital Archives Source: National Lbrary of Australia The PANDORA Digital Archiving System (PANDAS) A paper by Paul Koerbin, Supervisor, Digital Archiving Section, National Library of Australia presented at the 4th International Web Archiving Workshop on 16 September 2004 in Bath UK. -- Translation Source: NSF DG Research Team Is Developing a Digital Interpreter "QUALEG is a classic example of the challenges Europe faces as it creates a multi-national federated system. The countries directly involved are Poland, France and Germany. That means integrating documents written in at least three languages, most likely four, since many European documents also have English versions. It means combining different legacy software as well. It is a where-do-you-start nightmare, as tricky as trying to re-fold a map in a convertible on the Autobahn. One of the first steps in the process is the creation of an ontology, a cross-lingual thesaurus that provides a thematic structure for all the terms one is likely to encounter. Ontologies need to be semantically sensitive: 'bank' near 'river' means something quite different from 'bank' near 'teller'." -- Digital Libraries The October, 2004 Issue of Digital Libraries Magazine is Now Online Articles include: + E-Books: Challenges and Opportunities + Visualizing Bibliographic Metadata - A Virtual (Book) Spine Viewer + An Orderly Retreat from the Big Deal: Is It Possible for Consortia? -- Cataloging--Bibliography Source: IFLA Updated, FRBR Bibliography 37 pages; PDF.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Legal Industry--United States Source: Corporate Counsel Just Released, Who Represents America's Biggest Companies, 2004 -- Intelligence--United States Source: National Intelligence Council New, Tracking The Dragon: Selected National Intelligence EstimatesOn China, 1948-1976 "This collection of declassified National Intelligence Estimates (NIEs) is the first such release of analytical products exclusively on China. The inspiration for this undertaking came from National Intelligence Council (NIC) Chairman Ambassador Robert Hutchings and Herb Briick of CIA's Information Management Services (IMS). Upon reviewing outstanding requests for NIC documents received through Freedom of Information and Executive Order channels, both noted a critical mass of requests on China." -- Employment--United States Government Source: Occupational Outlook Quarterly--Summer 2004 Issue New Full Text article, How to get a job in the Federal Government Abstract ||| Full Text -- California Source: California Digital Library The Online Archive of California "The OAC brings together historical materials from a variety of California institutions, including museums, historical societies, and archives. Over 120,000 images; 50,000 pages of documents, letters, and oral histories; and 8,000 guides to collections are available." -- Population--United States--Maps Source: U.S. Census Just Released, 2003 State and County Estimates Maps "Graphical maps and tables based on the 2003 State and County Estimates." Sunday, October 17, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf National Libraries--Europe--Map Theft Source: The Times (London, UK) Library wants map thief brought to book "A former landscape gardener who is to be sentenced next month for stealing more than 50 rare maps from the National Library of Wales is suspected of plundering hundreds more maps from public collections across Britain and Europe, many of which have yet to be reported missing." -- Libraries--Research--African Americans Source: Miami Herald African-American Research Library: Vision fulfilled "The African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, 2650 Sistrunk Blvd. near Fort Lauderdale, one of three such establishments in the United States providing access to black literature and culture, is fulfilling its mission on its second anniversary, according to founder Samuel Morrison, former director of the Broward County Library System." -- Vatican Library--RFID Source: CNN.com High-tech security for ancient books "It is home to 1.6 million books, centuries-old manuscripts and the oldest known complete Bible. Now, librarians at the Vatican Library are using cutting-edge technology to keep track of the priceless ancient collection. About 30,000 books have been tagged with radio frequency identification (RFID) chips since implementation of the technology began last year. Two million of the 40-million piece collection will be tagged in the near future, allowing staff to complete the library's annual inventory in less than a day, something that previously forced it to close for a whole month."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Marine Protected Areas--United States Source: U.S. Department of Commerce/NOAA and the U.S. Department of the Interior Marine Managed Area Programs and Systems in States, Commonwealths, and Territories "States use a wide variety of site designation authorities to protect and manage natural and cultural coastal and marine resources. Nationwide, there are more than 100 state, territorial, and commonwealth agencies with area-based management authority. Every state and territory has different bureaus, departments, and divisions that regulate the environment, manage lands, and regulate commerce. These pages contain information on each coastal and marine state, commonwealth, or territory's marine managed area programs, agencies, and legislation." -- Shipwrecks--Bibiliography Source: NOAA Central Library List of publications on shipwrecks and shipwreck related topics located in NOAALINC (PDF; 276 KB) "This bibliography has been prepared on the occasion of the Brown Bag Seminar AThe Wreck of the Henrietta Marie@ presented by Michael Cottman of the Washington Post in the NOAA Central Library on July 31, 2003. The bibliography contains printed publications and online Internet resources on shipwrecks. The entries are arranged alphabetically by title." Revised August 2004. NOAALINC< |
