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Friday, December 31, 2004
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
eBay--Lists & Rankings
Electronic Commerce

eBay Pulse
Interesting and fun!!! Top search terms, trends, hot picks, and cool stuff on eBay. Updated daily. The "Everything Else" category is always interesting. (-:
See Also: eBay Popular Product Rankings

Thursday, December 30, 2004
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Torture
Source: U.S. Dept of Justice/Office of Legal Counsel (via Findlaw)
Dept. of Justice Memo Redefining Torture
--
Intelligence--Legislation--United States
Source: askSam
New and Searchable, Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act from askSam
"The Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004 is the most dramatic reform of U.S. intelligence capabilities since the National Security Act of 1947. You'll find the complete text of this legislation in a searchable askSam database that you can easily search, browse, and analyze. This is a free download and can be searched and viewed with either askSam or with a copy of the free askSam Viewer.
--
Television--United States--Lists & Rankings
Source: Harris Interactive
Survey: America's Favorite TV Personality

Professional Reading Shelf
Health Research--PubMed
Controlled Vocabularies--MeSH
Source: NLM
+ New PubMed Spell Checking Feature
+ What's New for 2005 MeSH ||| Introduction to MeSH -- 2005
--
Public Libraries--Audio Books
Source: San Jose Mercury News
Library upgrades digital services
"The San Jose Public Library is the first in the nation to offer digital audio books in Microsoft Windows Media Audio format."

Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Web Search--Google
Google Scholar's New Advanced Search Interface
The Google Scholar team has released an advanced search interface. You can limit your search by:
+ Publication (No syntax available)
+ Date Range (No syntax available)
+ Words in the Title
+ Author
+ View up to 100 results per search
Complete documentation and a few caveats here.
We haven't had much time to use the new interface but quickly spotted a problem or two (yes, it's a beta) with the date restriction. For example, we limited our searches to only documents published in 2004 and got several non-2004 items.
+ #1
The first item, a book, was published in 1987.
+ #2
The first item, a journal article, was published in 1995.
+ This search is limited to documents published between 2003 and 2004. The first item was published in 2001. To Google's credit, they mention date limiting issues in the documentation. Bottom Line: Be careful!

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Tsunamis
Source: DigitalGlobe (via NASA)
Satellite Images of Tsunami Devastation
From the caption, "DigitalGlobe's Quickbird satellite captured an image of the devastation around Kalutara, Sri Lanka (top) on December 26, 2004 at 10:20 AM, local time--about an hour after the first in the series of waves hit."
See also: Asia Tsunami Dec 2004: Satellite imagery regional map of Affected Areas (ReliefWeb)
See also: Indian Ocean: Earthquake/Tsunami Impact and Assistance (U.S. Department of State)
See also: Asia's Deadly Waves--Interactive Map

Search Briefs
Fast Search and Transfer Will Work With Factiva
"Fast Search & Transfer ASA today announced that Factiva, a Dow Jones & Reuters Company, has signed an agreement to deploy FAST Data Search 360 across multiple applications throughout its organization."

Professional Reading Shelf
National Libraries--Europe
The December Issues of The European Library Newsletter is Now Online (Word Document)

Also online is a PowerPoint presentation:
The European Library: More than virtual reference
Presented at Online Information 2004 by Jill Cousins.
--
RSS
An Introduction to RSS
ResourceShelf friend and RSS zealot, Jessica Baumgart, has written an award winning tutorial/intro about RSS, web feeds, and syndication. Perfect for your training folder! Jessica also won an award for her comprehensive Feedster search tutorial

Tuesday, December 28, 2004
Motion Pictures--Preservation
Source: Library of Congress
Librarian of Congress Adds 25 Films to National Film Registry
Duck and Cover, Eraserhead, and Jailhouse Rock are three of the films on this year's list.

Professional Reading Shelf
Research Libraries--Statistics
Source: ARL
Monograph and Serial Costs in ARL Libraries, 1986-2003:

All ARL Libraries
ARL Public University Libraries
ARL Private University Libraries
ARL Canadian University Libraries
--
Digital Preservation
Source:
New Issue: DPC/PADI What's new in digital preservation
--
Open Access
Source: Biomed Central
New Issue: Open Access Now
--
Public Libraries--Financial Misconduct
Source: Savannah Morning News
Feds, state probe alleged financial misconduct in middle Georgia libraries
"Federal officials in Savannah are leading a probe of alleged financial abuses at middle Georgia libraries.... The investigation has sent shudders through the ranks of librarians around the state, already widely seen as vulnerable targets in the ongoing scramble to trim budgets."
--
Internet Hoaxes
Web Hoaxes: Christmas Lights
For your, "it's easy to create a hoax" on the Internet file...It turns out that a web site that was supposed to allow vistors to control Christmas lights over the web was a hoax. The story was picked up by the AP, mentioned on Slashdot, The New York Times, and by MANY other news outlets. The site got more that 4 million visitors this month. You can learn more about the hoax in this Wall Street Journal story and from the AP.

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Population--United States--Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
Just Released, U.S. Population (Estimate), New Year's Day 2005
"...the U.S. Census Bureau today projected the Jan. 1, 2005, population of the United States will be 295,160,302 -- up 2,835,602 or 1.0 percent from New Year's Day 2004."
--
2004--Lists--Language
Source: yourDictionary.com
'Incivility' Bests 'Red States/Blue States,' 'Blogosphere,' and 'Flip Flopping' as Word of the Year for 2004
"YDC released eight different Words of the Year lists featuring the Top Words, Names, Phrases, Numbers, California YouthSpeak, Internet, Sports-related, and Color-related Words, as well as the Top Words in Pop Music and the Most Frequently Spoken Word On The Planet."
--
Labor--Statistics
Source: International Labour Organization
ILO World Employment Report 2004-05: Employment, Productivity And Poverty Reduction
Summary ||| Full Text
--
Internet Access--United States
Source: GovTech and FCC
New, FCC Releases Statistics on High-Speed Internet Access Services
"The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) recently released new data on high-speed connections to the Internet in the United States. Twice a year, facilities-based broadband providers must report the number of high-speed connections in service pursuant to the FCC's local competition and broadband data gathering program."
Summary Article (via GovTech) ||| Direct to Complete FCC Report
"FCC report also includes state-by-state, population density, and household income information, ranked by zip codes."

Monday, December 27, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf
Academia--Information Technology
Source: Educause Review
The Academic Culture and the IT Culture: Their Effect on Teaching and Scholarship
"Librarians have been the real heroes of the digital revolution in higher education. They are the ones who have seen the farthest, done the most, accepted the hardest challenges, and demonstrated most clearly the benefits of digital information. In the process, they have turned their own field upside down and have revolutionized their professional training. It is testimony to their success that we take their achievement -- and their information-management systems -- for granted."
--
Web--United States Government
Source: GCN
OMB creates single policy document for Web requirements
"The Office of Management and Budget late last week issued 10 online marching orders that agencies must meet by the end of next year. But of the 10, only one -- the requirement for a search function on every public Web site or main entry point -- is truly new to agencies."
See Also: Direct to OMB Memo

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Aging--Children's Booklist
Source: Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) and George Washington University's Center on Aging, Health & Humanities
Books With Positive Portrayals of Aging and Older Characters for Younger Readers, Middle Readers, & Older Readers from PreK to Grade 6 (PDF; 137 KB)
From ALA press release: "ALSC, a division of the American Library Association (ALA), compiled the new list, which was then evaluated by more than 200 librarians, specialists and consumers of various ages.... The 91 titles, published as recently as 2002 and as far back as 1976, are geared for children pre-K through Grade 6."
--
Internet--United States--Statistics
Source: Pew Internet & American Life Project
New data on internet use and demographics
+ There are currently 120 million adult users of the internet.
+ 51% of the 106 million American adults with home internet connections have broadband connections.

Sunday, December 26, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf
Parliamentary Library--Canada
Source: The Globe and Mail
Parliamentary library emerges from renovations
"The crown jewel of Parliament Hill is slowly emerging from wrappings that have cocooned it for almost three years of renovations."

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Spam--Lists & Rankings
Tsunamis
source: USGS and NOAA
+ International Tsunami Information Center FAQ
+ The Basics: Life of a Tsunami
+ Largest Earthquakes in the World Since 1900
+ Most Destructive Earthquakes in the World
+ Earthquakes in the World with 1,000 or More Deaths
+ South Asia: Earthquake and Tsunami (via ReliefWeb)
+ South Asia: Earthquake and Tsunami (via Reuters AlertNet)
--
Spam--Lists and Rankings
Source: Sophos
The "Dirty Dozen" 2004: Sophos reveals the top spamming countries
"Researchers at Sophos scanned all spam messages received at its global network of honeypots throughout 2004 month and at the top of the list was the United States, which is responsible for exporting 42.11% of all spam."
--
Military Records--Vietnam
Source: The Eureka Reporter
Vietnam Files Provide Marines Access To Their Records
"Thanks to Vietnam veteran David Prendergast, U.S. Marines who served in the Vietnam War can now access their records online. For years, Prendergast, a local attorney, has volunteered his spare time helping Vietnam veterans access their records so that they can establish their disability eligibility."
See: The Vietnam Files

Saturday, December 25, 2004
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Albert Einstein
Science

Inside Einstein's Universe
"Joining the worldwide celebration of the centennial of Einstein's "miracle year," the NASA-Smithsonian UniverseForum is creating a portfolio of highly visual, dramatic interactive learning resources especially for use by museums, science centers, planetariums and other science education organizations." Thanks to S.F. for the source tip.

Friday, December 24, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf
Public Libraries--Financial Misconduct
Source: Savannah Morning News
Feds, state probe alleged financial misconduct in middle Georgia libraries
"Federal officials in Savannah are leading a probe of alleged financial abuses at middle Georgia libraries.... The investigation has sent shudders through the ranks of librarians around the state, already widely seen as vulnerable targets in the ongoing scramble to trim budgets. 'Obviously, this is not the kind of publicity we need,' said Steve Schaefer, director of the Uncle Remus Regional Library in Madison County. 'But we need to get to the bottom of it. And if there's been misconduct, we need to get rid of some people.'"
--
Academia--Information Technology
Source: Educause Review
The Academic Culture and the IT Culture: Their Effect on Teaching and Scholarship
"Librarians have been the real heroes of the digital revolution in higher education. They are the ones who have seen the farthest, done the most, accepted the hardest challenges, and demonstrated most clearly the benefits of digital information. In the process, they have turned their own field upside down and have revolutionized their professional training. It is testimony to their success that we take their achievement -- and their information-management systems -- for granted."

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Medicare--United States
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
New, Interactive Online Tool Provides Key Data On Medicare Advantage Plans
"Medicare Health Plan Tracker provides basic information about Medicare HMOs and other private plans, including plan participation and beneficiary enrollment, at the national, state and county level."

Thursday, December 23, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf
Preservation--Audio
National Libraries--United Kingdom
Source: Channel NewsAsia
British library preserving voice recordings of famous people on CDs
--
National Libraries--Iraq
Source: Guardian Unlimited
Iraq's library struggles to rise from the ashes
"The daylight burning of the library, which the invading US military did not protect, was one of the first costly failures in the post-war chaos of occupation last year. Now it is slowly being restored. But in a country where recent history remains bitterly disputed, resurrecting the library and national archive has turned into a remarkably sensitive and political operation."
--
Freedom of Information Act--United Kingdom
Source: The Times of London
The right to know: a guide to digging out the truth
"In theory, the Freedom of Information Act, which comes into force on January 1, gives every British citizen sweeping new powers to obtain information held by any public body. From schools to prisons, police authorities to government departments, railway bodies to local councils, any public body must be prepared to release information on its files."

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Dance--Special Collections--Organization
Dance Heritage Coalition
"The DHC is a national alliance of institutions holding significant collections of materials documenting the history of dance. Its mission is to preserve, make accessible, enhance and augment the materials that document the artistic accomplishments in dance of the past, present, and future. The DHC pursues its mission by encouraging, initiating, and developing collaborative projects among the dance communities, library and archival fields, scholarly institutions, and individuals in four essential areas: access to materials, the continuing documentation of dance employing both traditional methods and developing technologies, preservation of existing documentation, and education within and beyond the field of dance." What's here:
+ Dance Research Resources: Finding Aids for Archival Collections
+ Choreographing Your Search ("tutorial for in-depth dance research")
+ Cataloging guidelines and procedures
+ Publications ("information on access to dance and dance-related materials, the continued documentation of dance, preservation of existing dance documentation, and education regarding methods, standards, and best practices")
+ Technical Sources (MARC, XML, EAD)
--
Science and Engineering--United States--Statistics
Source: NSF
Just Released, Science and Engineering State Profiles: 2001-2003
"This report, 2001-03 Science and Engineering State Profiles, provides statistics on finances and personnel for the 50 States, D.C., and Puerto Rico with special emphasis on R&D performance in FY 2002."
--
Obituaries
Source: AP
+ Roll Call of Notables Who Died in 2004
+ Notables Who Died in 2004 in the Arts

Web Browsers
New Beta Release of Opera Browser Available, Browse With Your Voice
Many new and improved features. Most notable? From the news release, "The new version of Opera also features voice technology. Opera is the first browser to prepare for a future of Web sites offering interactive, voice-enabled shopping and booking systems. You can also browse the Web using spoken commands, such as "Opera next link," "Opera back," or "Opera speak." The latter command will make Opera read Web page content and e-mail messages to you aloud, adding usability as either a screen reader or advanced dictionary. Fit-to-Window-Width will adapt Web page content to fit the width of your window, which means you can have multiple windows open with no horizontal scrolling. In combination with Opera's Zoom feature, you can dramatically magnify Web pages and still view them without having to scroll sideways -- a compelling accessibility tool for visually impaired users. This technology may also be applied to printing Web pages with Fit-to-Page-Width."
Download Changelog More On Voice Browsing

Web Search Briefs
Most Popular Search Queries 2004
Google ||| Google (International) ||| Yahoo
See Also: Year-End Lists from Other Engines

Wednesday, December 22, 2004
Education--Graduation
Source: Achieve
The Expectations Gap ? A 50-State Review of High School Graduation Requirements
"Recent studies have revealed that few of the nation?s high school students are gaining the knowledge and skills they need to succeed in college and work. A new report finds an important explanation for this phenomenon: states do not expect their graduates to take courses that truly reflect the real-world demands of life after high school. In fact, according to the study released today by Achieve, Inc., in every state, students can take the courses necessary to meet graduation requirements yet still leave high school unprepared"
+ Read the Report [PDF]

Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries--United Kingdom--Statistics
Source: LISU/Loughborough University
Just Released, The LIST
"The LIST is an annual sampler of UK library statistics from all sectors. It covers public, academic, special, national and school libraries and is available free online"
--
Wireless Standards
Source: InfoWorld
Wireless Standards Snapshot
"Most wireless standards come from the IEEE, whose 802.11 category covers more than a dozen standards for specific wireless areas, but the IETF, Wi-Fi Alliance, and WiMax industry group also develop related standards." Identifies wireless transport, security, management/roaming/QoS standards.


Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Chronologies--2004
Source: AP
2004 Chronology, January Through July
--
Population--United States--Statistics
Source: U.S. Census (via DocuTicker.com)
2004 State Populations Estimates
Nevada was the fastest-growing state in 2004.
Summary Top Ten Fastest Growing States (PDF) Detailed Tables
--
National Basketball Association--Lists & Rankings
Source: Forbes
NBA Team Valuations 2004
--
Games--Museum
Source: University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada
Elliott Avedon Museum and Archive of Games
"The Museum, established in 1971, is a public institution dedicated to research and the collection, preservation, and exhibition of games and game-related objects. As of spring 2004, the Website will be in its 11th year and continues to evolve." Images of games in the museum are displayed by category. Click on each image to see how the game is played. Also here: Frequently Asked Questions About Games, Ethnography and Games. You can browse the games included on this site either alphabetically or via an ethnographic and geopolitical index. Very cool.


Tuesday, December 21, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf
Online Information
Source: Emerald
This Week Only: Free Full Text Access to Three Recent Issues of Online Information Review
Articles include:
+ Date-restricted queries in web search engines (Vol. 28 No. 6)
+ The unintended effects of hidden assumptions: biases on the internet
(Vol. 28 No. 6)
+ Citation searching (Vol. 28 No. 6)
+ A social science gateway in a shifting digital world: shaping SOSIG for users' needs of the future (Vol. 28 No. 5)
+ Citedness scores for filtering information and ranking search results (Vol. 28 No. 5)
+ Web users' information retrieval methods and skills (Vol. 28 No. 4)
+ Combining article content and Web usage for literature recommendation in digital libraries (Vol. 28 No. 4)
--
Digitization Projects
Source: VNUNet
Internet Archive to build alternative to Google
We posted about this project last week. Btw, The New York Times about the Google project today.
--
Digital Preservation
Source: New York Times News Service (via San Diego Union-Tribune)
PCs, CDs, DVDs full of e-files that need preserving
"America's 115 million home computers are brimming over with personal treasures -- millions of photographs, music of every genre, college papers, the great American novel and, of course, mountains of e-mail. Yet no one has figured out how to preserve these electronic materials for the next decade, much less for the ages. Like junk e-mail, the problem of digital archiving, which seems straightforward, confounds even the experts."
--
Scholary Publishing
Open Access
Source: BBC
BBC Radio 4 Airs Program About Open Access
The 37 minute program aired on Tuesday. An archived version is available on the web. "Scientific publishing is undergoing a revolution, with scientists and policy makers fed up with valuable research being denied to the public domain. Richard Black investigates"



Monday, December 20, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf
Libraries
Source: ARL
Libraries and Changing Research Practices: A Report of the ARL/CNI Forum on E-Research and Cyberinfrastructure
See Also: Slides and Presentations from the Forum
--
Information Visualization
Source: Information Today
Groxis Launches Grokker E.D.U. for the Education Market
From Paula Hane's article, "Grokker E.D.U., its 'search-and-research' platform for the education market. The new platform provides an optimized-for-education version of Grokker 2.2, the company?s metasearch application that shows contextually organized results from multiple sources, including the Web, in easy-to-navigate maps. Groxis also announced implementations of the new platform at Stanford University and a number of other universities and school districts."

Briefly
+ CSA Acquires PAIS From OCLC
From the FAQ, " OCLC remains interested in aggregating content via its FirstSearch service and NetLibrary, but has decided to exit the abstracts and indexing "content publishing" business by selling PAIS, the only abstracts and indexing content publishing business owned by OCLC." You can read a statement and review the FAQ here.
--
New Release of ScienceDirect Online

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Faculty Status/Salaries--Academia--United States
Source: American Association of University Professors
Faculty Salary and Faculty Distribution Fact Sheet 2003-04
From press release: "The American Association of University Professors (AAUP) has released an update on gender equity in academia. The sad story is that the 2003-04 figures show little improvement in the salary gap over twenty-five years of higher education history. Among full-time faculty, for example, 38 percent are women. But among full professors, only 23 percent are women. Conversely, women are well represented among the lower ranks; women are 58 percent of all instructors, 54 percent of all lecturers, and hold 51 percent of all unranked positions. The report on earnings shows a similarly skewed picture."
--
Asian Americans--Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
We the People: Asians in the United States
A new 24 page report.
--
Hispanic Americans--Statistics
Source: U.S. Census
We the People: Hispanics in the United States
A new 20 page report.
--
Military Studies--Webliography
Source: C&RL News
U.S. military and defense studies: Online Resources
A new compilation prepared by Edward Metz, a librarian at the Combined Arms Research Library in Ft. Leavenworth, Kansas.


Sunday, December 19, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf
Librarianship
Source: CILIP
Selected Articles from the December Issue of CILIP's Library + Information update are Now Online
+ Getting health information into communities
+ Preserving digital resources in the UK
+ Phil Bradley's Internet Q & A
--
Special Collections--Cookbooks
Source: Ann Arbor News
We are what we ate, cookbook collection shows
"It was published in 1796, a very long time ago in the history of American culinary arts. Just think of it. There were no hot dogs, hamburgers or deli sandwiches to be found. Still, some of the recipes in the first American cookbook, part of a collection assembled by an Ann Arbor couple, wouldn't seem so strange to our tastes today. There were recipes for turkey served with cranberry sauce, for instance.... That book and thousands of other pieces of American culinary history are being donated to the University of Michigan's Clements Library...."
--
Theft--Academic Library
Source: AP (via Akron Beacon Journal
Former library employee pleads guilty to selling ancient texts
"A former employee of the Kenyon College library pleaded guilty Friday to selling 50 rare books and other documents from the school's collection for $26,000."

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Newspaper Pictorials--World War I
Source: Library of Congress
Newspaper Pictorials: World War I Rotogravures
"During the World War I era (1914-18), leading newspapers took advantage of a new printing process that dramatically altered their ability to reproduce images. Rotogravure printing, which produced richly detailed, high quality illustrations?even on inexpensive newsprint paper?was used to create vivid new pictorial sections.... The images in this collection track American sentiment about the war in Europe, week by week, before and after the United States became involved."
--
Cool Tools and Gadgets
Source: Wired
Wired Tools 2004
"The coolest geek shopping list ever - 129 of the best screens, cams, phones, games and gadgets of the year."
See Also: Dan Giancanterino's Gift Guide Roundup


Saturday, December 18, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf
Open Archive Initiative
Source: Free Pint
"The Open Archive Initiative (OAI) and Google Scholar"
"There has been some disagreement about the merits of Google Scholar. Whatever your position on this, it is certain that the actual workings of Google Scholar are still the subject of speculation. What follows is not an unpicking of Google Scholar's innards but an exercise in trend watching. I think I might have spotted a trend in the act of tipping!"
--
Music Preservation
Source: Los Angeles Times
Keeping Track of the Scores
"What sets Feinstein apart from many collectors is his belief that musical rarities, once discovered, should not be hidden away. He says they are cultural artifacts and that every effort must to be made to carefully preserve them in public libraries or archives, so researchers and the public can enjoy them."
--
Iraqi Libraries
Source: The Harvard Crimson
Harvard To Help Stock Iraqi Library Collections
"In the new program, Harvard librarians have begun to compile lists of books and reference materials that will augment the collections in the Iraqi libraries. After Iraqi librarians indicate which books from the list they want, HUL will help them obtain the necessary funding to purchase them, according to Jeffrey Horrell, associate librarian of Harvard College for collections."

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
IT Salaries--Survey
Source: Certification Magazine
The Big Payoff: CertMag's 2004 Salary Survey
"Based on salary figures from the 2004 Certification Magazine Salary Survey, you might want to consider a career in either Cisco networking, telephony, project management or IT security."
--
Literacy--United States
Source: RAND Corporation
Achieving State and National Literacy Goals, a Long Uphill Road
"RAND gathered information from the 50 states and the District of Columbia (DC) on state assessment systems and student performance on reading or English language arts and writing assessments in order to measure adolescent's (grades 4 through 12) performance toward state literacy goals. Also examines the relative performance of students against national standards represented by the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP)."
Summary (PDF; 0.1 MB) ||| Full Report (PDF; 6.8 MB)

Friday, December 17, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf
Digital Information
Source: CNI
Project Updates from the Fall 2004 Coalition for Networked Information Task Force Meeting Are Now Online
Including:
+ The Vanderbilt Television News Archive: A Progress Report
+ An Update from the OAI
+ Status of Volume Book Scanning
+ Is Stuff Safe Yet? Publisher Cooperation, Collection Expansion, Technology Development, Community Sustainability
+ Going 'On-Web'
+ Archiving the Political Web: Prospects and Challenges
--
Health Information
Source: NLM
Index Medicus Ceases as a Printed Publication
--
Libraries
Source: Kansas City Business Journal
Linda Hall Library unveils $18.5M expansion
--
Library Buildings
Source: Library Journal
Library Buildings 2004 -- Great Libraries in the Making
"We are in an age of experimentation. From Cerritos, CA, to Salt Lake City to Seattle, library users are experiencing public libraries the likes of which they have never before seen. While the 1990s may be remembered as the era of the anchor facility, when libraries were called upon to define and support a community's renaissance, this decade's library projects are responding to a new set of expectations and opportunities. A key element, of course, is technology. While older buildings may have accommodated technology, today's new libraries are formed by it."

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Health
Source: CDC
Just Released: Married Adults are the Healthiest, New CDC Report Shows
News Release ||| Summary ||| Direct to Full Text
--
Climate--United States--Statistics
Source: NOAA
New, Climate of 2004 in Historical Perspective
--
Australia--Images
Two New Picture Trails from PictureAustralia
+ By Road
"From the cycle car of 1904 to the sports car of the 1980s, from motor rallies in 1911 to the V8 supercar series in 2000, motor transport has become a major form of recreation and travel for many Australians."
+ By Rail
"From the interior of a railway carriage in 1910 to the first electric railway in Sydney in 1968 - and discover the important role the railway has played in Australian society."
--
Enduring Institutions Project
Source: Booz Allen Hamilton
Booz Allen Hamilton Lists the World's Most Enduring Institutions
"Why is it that some institutions endure for decades or even for centuries while others disappear into history? Booz Allen Hamilton has sponsored a novel project identifying ten of the world's most Enduring Institutions over the past century. The list celebrates those institutions that have managed to reinvent themselves time and again -- and remained market leaders -- as the unique circumstances of their founding have given way to changing conditions."
--
Dogs--Library
Source: American Kennel Club (AKC)
The AKC Library
"The American Kennel Club maintains one of the world's largest libraries devoted to dogs, the development of purebred dogs and the sport and enjoyment of dogs. Open to the public, the Library presently contains approximately 17,000 volumes including bound periodicals, foreign and domestic stud books, art, literature, sporting, history and juvenile books.... The Library's mission is to serve as a public reference collection and archive on matters relating to purebred dogs and the various roles they play in our lives." Resources include:
+ Caius (OPAC)
+ AKC Recognized Breeds
+ Dog Breeds That Generally Do Well With People With Allergies
+ AKC Library Links
+ Support Dogs for the Handicapped
+ AKC Dog Registration Statistics



Thursday, December 16, 2004
Resources of the Week
Two resources from the world of labor and labor law this week, both of which are worth a bookmark.

1) Labor Law--International
Source: International Labor Organization
International Observatory of Labour Law
This gateway to international labor law information is one of those specialized resources that few of us would ever use on a day-in, day-out basis, but it's a good one to know about in case you ever need research material in this particular subject area -- not a far-fetched possibility, given the relentless march of globalization.

While some of the material on the site is scanty or has not been updated recently, there is excellent research value in the site's series of National Labour Law Profiles. Each of these provides an excellent overview of labor law in a number of ILO-member countries -- Argentina, Czech Republic, Ethiopia, Finland, Germany, Guyana, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Kenya, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, New Zealand, The Islamic Republic of Pakistan, Russian Federation, Republic of Korea, South Africa, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela. You'll find extensive information about the constitution, the government, the head of state, the legislature, the judiciary, labor regulation, contracts of employment, protective labor legislation, wage protection, workplace equality, sexual harassment, trade union regulation, collective bargaining and agreements, strikes and lockouts, and settlement of labor disputes. Each profile also includes a bibliography.

The site also offers a reasonably up-to-date collection of web links to constitutions, labor law and general legal information.
--
2) Labor Unions--Research Guide
Source: Martin P. Catherwood Library, School of Industrial and Labor Relations, Cornell University
Labor Unions and the Internet
This site essentially functions as a guide for labor unions who want to establish or maximize a web presence. It explains why the Internet is important for labor unions, and provides an extensive annotated webliography covering a wide range of useful, practical topics, from alternative dispute resolution to wages. The focus is on quality rather than quantity; each topic includes just a few key sites, but those are described in some detail.

Some of the guide sections will interest researchers outside the realm of labor unions. For example, guides to company information, government sites, and statistical sites. There's also a useful selection of labor union directories.

The library offers related guides on Collective Bargaining, Arbitration, and U.S. Labor Unions.
--
See Also: Stuart Basefsky's IWS News Service
A great resource for labor-related materials. Basefky is a librarian at Cornell.

Professional Reading Shelf
Digital Libraries
The December 2004 Issue of Digital Libraries Magazine is Now Online
Articles include:
+ The Role of RSS in Science Publishing: Syndication and Annotation on the Web
Tony Hammond, Timo Hannay, and Ben Lund, Nature Publishing Group
+ Resource Harvesting within the OAI-PMH Framework
Herbert Van de Sompel, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Research Library; Michael L. Nelson, Old Dominion University; and Carl Lagoze and Simeon Warner, Cornell University
+ A Repository of Metadata Crosswalks
Carol Jean Godby, Jeffrey A. Young, and Eric Childress, OCLC
+ Metadata Development in China : Research and Practice
Jia Liu, Peking University, China
--
Scanners
Source: Transform
Document Scanner Guide 2004

--
Internet
Source: Talk of the Nation/National Public Radio
Radio Program: Google's Plan Prompts a Question: What's on the Web?
Guests:
+ Michael Keller, head librarian, Stanford University; director of Academic Information Resources
+ Brewster Kahle, founder, the Internet Archive (a non-profit digital library)

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Travel--Weblogs
Source: The Washington Post
The Washington Post Guide to Travel Blogs
--
Holidays--United States--Fast Facts
Source: U.S. Census
Fast Facts: Holidays 2004
+ Christmas Trees, Ornaments and Gifts
$521 million
The amount of money the nation's Christmas tree farmers received from tree sales in 2003
+ $30.6 billion
The dollar amount of retail sales by the U.S. toy industry in 2002
+ 11,086
The number of electronic shopping and mail-order houses in business in 2001
+ Much More on the Fact Sheet
--
Toys--Noise Hazard
Source: Sight & Hearing Association
Noisy Toys
"For the seventh year, the Sight & Hearing Association tested 22 toys taken directly off toy store shelves. Five of those toys measured above 100 dB, which is similar to a chainsaw." Includes 2004 Noisy Toys List. (via Al's Morning Meeting)



Wednesday, December 15, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf
Digitization Projects--Books
No, It's Not Google: International Libraries and the Internet Archive collaborate to build Open-Access Text Archives
I have a funny feeling that this exciting news from the IA got overlooked yesterday. We have a couple of other items about the Million Book Project in yesterday's Google/Library post. "By working with libraries from 5 countries, and working to expand this number, we are bringing a broad range of materials to every interested individual. This growing commitment to open access through public archives marks a significant commitment to broad, public, and free access. While still early in its evolution, works in dozens of languages are already stored in the Internet Archive's Open-Access Text Archive offering a breadth of materials to everyone. Over one million books have been committed to the Text Archive. Currently over twenty-seven thousand are available and an additional fifty thousand are expected in the first quarter of 2005. Advanced processing of these multilingual books will offer unprecedented access."
--
Archives--Standards
Source: National Archives (U.K.)
The National Archives Standard for record repositories and the Framework of Standards
"The new National Archives Standard is the recognised benchmark for all aspects of caring for records and providing access to them. This new Standard also includes guidance on the preservation of digital and electronic records."
--
National Libraries--U.K.
Online page turner takes top award
Congrats to the Turning the Pages (TTP) team. If you've never checked out TTP, you should!!!
--
Information Industry
The November/December Issue of Research Information is Now Available
Feature Articles include:
+ Adapting to advance
"Information professionals can benefit from a dynamic employment market, so long as they're prepared to change with the environment."
+ Digging for information
"John Murphy profiles Professor Keith Van Rijsbergen, head of the information retrieval group at the University of Glasgow"

Google Scholar
Creator of Google Scholar Answers a Few Questions
Thanks to developer of Google Scholar, Anurag Acharya, for the following answers about the new service. ResourceShelf will check back soon for any updates.

Q: What is the cut-off in terms of page size? From what we can see it's about 500kb-800kb? Is this documented anywhere?
A: No, this isn't documented and the team tells me these limits are "likely to change." Nothing specific to announce. No date set yet.

Q: How often is the GS database updated?
A: Periodically. While in beta, we will determine how often to update this index. As you can imagine, the content in Scholar is different than the main index. We're studying it, and don't have a final schedule/refresh rate to announce yet.

Q: Does GS have any plans to state what they do and don't consider scholarly?
A: The techniques used to decide inclusion in Google Scholar are evolving. As mentioned earlier, we're still in beta and constantly working to evolve the product. Automated extraction of information from a diverse collection of documents and web pages can be tricky. Note, however, that with a decent ranking, the inclusion criteria are less important."

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Online Exhibits--Canada
Source: Civilization.ca
New, Before E-Commerce: A History of Canadian Mail Order Catalogs
--
Health Benefits--United States
Source: Kaiser Family Foundation
Just Released, Current Trends and Future Outlook for Retiree Health Benefits: Findings from the Kaiser/Hewitt 2004 Survey on Retiree Health Benefits
--
Computer Hardware--Consumer Ratings
Source: PCWorld.com
Readers Rate the Manufacturers
"Who builds hardware you can count on? How does tech support stack up? We asked 42,000 PC World readers about their PCs, cameras, printers, and more -- and boy, did they give us an earful."

Tuesday, December 14, 2004
Web Search--Google
Source: SearchDay
Google: Let's Digitize Several Million Library Books
Holy Cow! Not even a month after Google Scholar was released, more big news from Google today. The company is announcing plans (very little has been done to this point) to work with libraries at Harvard, University of Michigan, Oxford, and Stanford, as well as the New York Public Library to scan and digitize MILLIONS of books in their collections -- in fact, in some cases, the entire collection. These are long-term projects (many years). All of us will be watching. Gary has written an overview article for SearchDay.
More in the Boston Globe, the New York Times, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
See Also: The Google Print Library FAQ
Oh, how could we forget, check out the headline CNN slapped on a Reuters story about the project. )-:
--
Btw, let's not forget that other book digitization projects are well underway. In fact, Brewster Kahle, founder of the Internet Archive has just posted news about the IA's Million Book Project. He writes:
+ "The Million Books Project will be posting 10's of thousands of books later this month on the Archive and elsewhere. These were scanned in India by the Indian government."
+ "This fall we kicked off a volume book scanning "in-library" project at the University of Toronto."
+ Watch a Movie of the Internet Archive's Scanning Robot at the University of Toronto

--
ResourceShelf Contributing Editor, Steven Cohen, shares a comment or two:
So, it seems that Google is starting a partnership with a few libraries across the country, which will include the digitation of all of the books in the collections and make them available on Google Print. Wow.

According to Search Engine Watch, "At the University of Michigan, the plan is to scan seven million titles over a six year period using a non-destructive scanning technology that Google has developed. The university will also be given a copy of each file to use as they see fit. A "digitize the complete library" arrangement is also the current plan at Stanford and Oxford, and the New York Public Library will also be running a pilot project."

This is sure to make waves across the library world. On one hand, making library materials available on Google could result in libraries getting more attention from users. In fact, it could be a great marketing tool for the participating libraries. On the other hand, what makes Google certain that they will reach potential users of the system? As we have found out with Open WorldCat, just because data is part of a database, it doesn't mean people will find it. Considering that Google will not be providing a specific search query system for this service, it will probably be just as tough to find materials from the participating libraries. Making a database bigger doesn't make it better.

I've heard the "If you can't beat 'em, join 'em" approach before with Google (and I'm not implying that this is one of those instances), but libraries should be pushing their own materials through their websites rather than having to "rely" on Google to do so.

That said, I'm taking the wait-and-see approach with this new partnership. It could indeed have a very positive effect on users' attitutes towards libraries, but there could also be negative consequences.
--
--
Comments from ResourceShelf Contributing Editor, Dan Giancaterino
Here's the bottom line for Jenkins Law Library (where I work), which btw is 200 years old. About 1% of our collection is "out of copyright," i.e., published before 1900 (my arbitrary date.) These titles have accounted for less than one-half of 1% of total uses (checkout, internal use, copying, and ILL) in the last 10 years. Digitizing these titles sounds great, but it really won't help our users very much."
--
--
See Also: Some are leery of Google's online data project (via SLC Tribune/AP)
See Also: Google's digital books plan not user perfect (via Chicago Tribune/AP)

Professional Reading Shelf
Law Librarians
Source: Memphis Business Journal
Law librarians say technology has them more in demand
"Online research hasn't rendered law librarians obsolete. In fact, librarians are actually in greater demand now than ever before and have increased workloads, librarians and lawyers say."
--
Virtual Reference--United Kingdom
Nationwide Virtual Reference Service Pilot Underway in the United Kingdom
From the announcement, "The first phase of the new People's Network Service is launched to library professionals today. The People's Network Online Enquiry Service will deliver a real-time information service to the public by providing 'live' access to library and information professionals across the internet...'We are asking colleagues to help us pilot and test out this Enquiry Service and give us your comments and feedback prior to its public launch in March next year.'"
--
Document Delivery
Source: E-LIS
The impact of e-journal access on DocDel Service activities
In Proceedings 9th European Conference of Medical and Health Libraries, Santander(Spain).

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Crime--United States--Statistics
Source: FBI
Just Released, Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report
Summary ||| Full Text
--
Freedom of Information--United Kingdom
Source: National Audit Office
New, Freedom of Information Guide
--
Energy--Statistics--United States
Source: EIA
+ Early Release of the Annual Energy Outlook 2005
--
Newspapers--RSS
Source: The Media Drop
Newspapers with RSS: A List
From The Media Drop Web Site, "It took a little longer than expected, but I've compiled what I believe to be a solid list of U.S. newspapers that offer RSS feeds. It is sorted alphabetically, and I'm still noting state designations on some of them. The list includes newspapers listed in the Yahoo! directory, including college/university publications when available."

Monday, December 13, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf
Audio Books
Source: CNET
Flash memory coaxes audiobooks out of the '70s
--
Children's Literature
Source: AP
University's library school offers online gift guide for children's books
From University of Illinois' Graduate School of Library Science and Information. "Thousands of children's books are published in the United States each year so finding the perfect book for that favorite niece or nephew won't be easy. It wouldn't hurt to have some professional help. With that in mind, the experts at the Center for Children's Books at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have created an online guide to help make choosing the right gift easier. 'The books people buy for kids aren't necessarily the same books kids enjoy,' explained Deborah Stevenson, editor of the 20-page guide, which lists about 250 books split up by age group."
--
Government Printing Office
Source: GPO
Just Released, GPO Unveils Its Strategic Vision for the 21st Century: A Digital Information Factory
From the announcement, "'We had to wake up. Last month 50% of all Government documents were born digital and will never be printed by the Government. But the GPO is still required by law to gather and catalog these electronic documents, to distribute them electronically, and to ensure their perpetual availability to the public,' said Bruce James, Public Printer of the United States. 'This task calls for a whole new set of skills and tools; what we call a digital information factory.' Central to GPO's plans is trading its existing building complex for new facilities, sized and equipped for its digital future. 'Rather than burden taxpayers with the enormous costs of building and equipping our operations for the future, we believe that we can use the proceeds from the private redevelopment of our current obsolete plant to completely pay the costs of new facilities and still have money left over to return to the U.S.Treasury,' James said."
--
Open Access
Source: Online Journalism Review
Calls for Open Access Challenge Academic Journals

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Drug Prices--United States
Source: Consumers Union
New Web Site, Consumer Reports Best Buy Drugs Launches Website
"Consumers Union has launched a public education campaign and free website--www.CRBestBuyDrugs.org--that will help consumers save money on medicines. The reports compare a variety of prescription drugs on price, effectiveness and safety to help consumers and their doctors identify the most effective and affordable medicines."
--
Military Science--Bibliographies
Two new bibliographies from Air University Library
Internet resources, books, documents, periodicals
+ Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
+ Operation Iraqi Freedom--Lessons Learned
--
Vehicle Colors--Popularity
Source: DuPont Automotive
Silver Still Strong, But Livelier Hues Lead Change -- 2004 DuPont Automotive Color Popularity Report Indicates Car Buyers "Yearn For Color"
"A color coup has yet to topple silver's crown, but a yearning for new and expressive vehicle exterior colors is clearly gaining force -- a trend that experts say will increase in the coming years. The newly released 2004 DuPont Automotive Color Popularity Report traces the rise of chromatic shades in North America. For example, light metallic brown and blue each have captured double-digit percentages of the overall vehicle market, and yellow looks hot on the right vehicles while red is on the rise again."
--
Internet--Spam
Source: Business Software Alliance (via docuticker.com)
Consumer Attitudes Toward Spam
"Internet bargain hunters are likely to become scam victims this holiday season if they respond to unsolicited or 'junk' email offers that seem
'too-good-to-be-true,' say the Business Software Alliance (BSA) and the Council of Better Business Bureaus (CBBB). The two non-profit groups today released the results of a BSA commissioned study conducted by Forrester Data on spam email along with shopping tips for a safe and secure online holiday shopping experience."
+ Read the Survey of Spam in the U.S. [PDF]
+ Read the Survey of Span in 6 Countries [PDF]


Sunday, December 12, 2004
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
U.S. History--Timelines
New Timelines Added to Infoplease.com Collection
+ Significant U.S. Conflicts
+ U.S. Voting Rights
+ Changes in the Presidency
+ The Supreme Court and Equal Rights
+ The Supreme Court and Federalism
+ Congressional Power
+ Free Speech
--
Military History--Writing Guide
Source: Marine Corps Historical Center
Marine Corps Historical Center Writing Guide (PDF; 732 KB)
"The Writing Guide of the Marine Corps History and Museums Division is intended primarily for use by historians and curators, both Marine and civilian, assigned to the Division and those others engaged in the preparation of officially sanctioned histories and exhibits. However, the Writing Guide can also be a useful reference for historians of Marine Corps history." (Revised Edition 2004)
--
Ethics--Professions--Public Opinion
Source: The Gallup Organization
Nurses Top List in Honesty and Ethics Poll
"More generally, this year's honesty and ethics poll shows that Americans continue to give their highest ratings to the public service professions, like the military, teachers, and members of the medical profession. Public protectors also rate highly. The lowest rated professions tend to be those connected with sales or big business, lawyers, elected officeholders, and reporters."
--
AIDS Epidemic--Maps
Source: Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS)
AIDS Epidemic Update: December 2004 North America, Western and Central Europe: Maps
Four maps:
+ Global estimates for adults and children, end 2004
+ Adults and children estimated to be living with HIV/AIDS, end 2004
+ Estimated number of adults and children newly infected with HIV during 2004
+ Estimated adult and child deaths due to HIV/AIDS during 2004

Search Briefs (via SEW Blog)
+ American Chemical Society Sues Google Over Google Scholar Name
Note: If you're interested in reading the nine page complaint that the ACS filed in U.S. District Court, it's available here.

Saturday, December 11, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf
Information Dissemination
Source: E-LIS
PREPRINT: Participation in the global knowledge commons: challenges and opportunities for research dissemination in developing countries
--
Academic Libraries
Source: Daily Illini
Crowded library receives shelf space
Read about the opening off-campus storage facility at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana.
--
National Archives--United States
Source: NARA
President Signs National Archives Budget
"Congress has passed and the President has approved a budget for the National Archives and Records Administration for Fiscal Year 2005 of $321,291,000, which exceeds the President's request...Included in the total of $321,291,000 are $266,945,000 for operating expenses, $35,914,000 for the Electronic Records Archives, $13,432,000 for repairs and restorations, and $5,000,000 for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission, (NHPRC). However, the legislation also includes a .83 percent (eighty-three one hundreds of one percent) across-the-board reduction on all accounts. This means an agency-wide reduction of approximately $2,426,000 from the appropriated amounts."

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
Computer Viruses--Lists & Rankings
Source: Sophos
Top Ten Computer Viruses for 2004
--
U.S. History--Timelines
New Timelines Added to Infoplease.com Collection
+ Significant U.S. Conflicts
+ U.S. Voting Rights
+ Changes in the Presidency
+ The Supreme Court and Equal Rights
+ The Supreme Court and Federalism
+ Congressional Power
+ Free Speech

Specialty Search Tools--Vivisimo
Search the FY 05 U.S. Federal Budget and and Cluster Results With Vivisimo
Journalists, policy wonks, and poli science students might find this new clustering tool useful.

Friday, December 10, 2004
Professional Reading Shelf
Images and Art Resources
Source: Searcher
Looking for Good Art, Part 3: Glorious National Collections
The third part of David Mattison's wonderful series of annotated webliographies. Part 1: Web Resources and Image Databases and Part 2: General & U.S. Tools are also available online.
--
National Libraries--South Africa
Source: Business Day
Work to Begin Shortly on New National Library of South Africa Building
"The national library came into existence through the merger in 1999 of the former state library in Pretoria and the former South African Library in Cape Town."
--
Library Organizations
Source: International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions
IFLA's Three Pillars: Society, Members and Profession
--
Public Libraries
Source: Detroit Free Press
Author drops suit against Ann Arbor library over ban for swearing

Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents
United States--Statistics
Just Released, The 2004-2005 Statistical Abstract of the United States
See Also: Fast Facts from the New Stat Abstract
+ The number of cell phone subscribers in the United States reached approximately 159 million in 2003, up from 34 million in 1995
+ The average cell phone call in 2003 lasted 2.87 minutes, and the average monthly bill was $49.91.
+ For the year ending Sept. 30, 2002, almost 1.1 million immigrants were admitted to the United States. The three leading countries from which they came were Mexico (219,380), India (71,105) and China (61,282).
+ In 2002, 39,955 doctoral degrees were conferred. Among those with known citizenship, 74 percent of these degrees were awarded to U.S. citizens; 26 percent went to citizens of another country.
--
Children--Statistics
Source: UNICEF
Just Released, Childhood under Threat -- The State of the World's Children 2005
--
R&D
Source: Technology Review
R&D 2004
"Technology Review analyzes corporate research trends and numbers. Including: the TR Corporate R&D Scorecard, which tallies the R&D spending of 150 top technology companies, and a ranking of companies according to the TR Innovation Index. Plus: profiles of hot research projects at Philips, Nokia, and Texas Instruments."
--
Digital Divide--United Kingdom
Source: BT
Research reveals stark portrait of digital Britain in 2025
"Millions of Britons will face huge difficulties trying to access a wide range of essential services if the gap between people with access to technology and those without continues without direct action over the next 20 years.A new BT report, which explores the future impact of the digital divide, predicts that whilst the number of digitally excluded people will fall from 27 million to 23 million by 2025, the people excluded risk losing access to fundamental services like medical information and education."
+ Read the Full Report
--
Health Resources
Source: NLM
A New "Local" Version of MedlinePLUS for Missouri
"Missourians have a new way to connect to local health services. NLM's MedlinePlus consumer health web site now includes Go Local links to Missouri's Community Connection (http://communityconnection.org) online services directory. Missouri is the second state, after North Carolina, to complete a Go Local connection with MedlinePlus."


Thursday, December 09, 2004
Resources of the Week
Two entries this week.
---
---
by Steven Cohen, Contributing Editor
Toxic Chemicals--United States--Maps
Source: NLM
Toxmap
This past week, the National Library of Medicine (US) announced the availability of a new interactive web site titled TOXMAP. According to the press release, TOXMAP, "shows--on maps--the amount and location of certain toxic chemicals released into the environment in the United States...[and]...focuses on the geographic distribution of chemical releases, their relative amounts, and their trends over time....TOXMAP also links to NLM's extensive collection of toxicology and environmental health references, as well as to