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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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Thursday, March 31, 2005
Resource of the Week by Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor Educational Travel--Directory ShawGuides So what are you planning to do on your vacation? Tired of that same old beach/mountains/visiting relatives routine? Completely turned off by the idea of one of those "If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium" whirlwind tours? This year, perhaps you should do something different. Learn a foreign language. Perfect your golf game. Attend a writers conference. Study cooking in France or painting in Italy? If you need an idea, try poking around in ShawGuides, a voluminous directory of educational and cultural travel programs. Now this site is not gorgeous by any means, but the content is rich and deep. The database contains information on more than 5,300 different programs, organized into 11 categories: + Cultural Travel + Art & Craft Workshops + Cooking & Wine Schools-Career + Cooking & Wine Schools-Recreational + Golf Schools & Camps + Photography, Film & New Media Schools + Photography, Film & New Media Workshops + Language Vacations + Writers Conferences & Workshops + Tennis Schools & Camps + High Performance Programs Although there is no search box on the home page, at the top level of the directory, you'll find one near the top of each page when you click through to one of the main headings. You can do a simple keyword search or click the search by date link, which actually gives you more options than a simple calendar search. Dropdown menus allow you to choose an area of focus -- e.g., art, sports, world affairs, etc. -- and/or a geographic location, either U.S. states or other countries. On the same page, under the advanced search form, is an option to sign up for e-mail notification when activities matching your search criteria are added to the database. If you look under the keyword search box at the top of the page, you'll see an array of clickable links to months, topics, states and countries -- all different ways of browsing through the database.
Professional Reading Shelf Technology Books--Book Reviews Source: LITA New Issue, TER: Technology Electronic Reviews Reviews include: + REVIEW OF: Phil Bradley. (2004). Advanced Internet Searcher's Handbook. Portland, OR: Neal-Schuman.(ISBN: 1856045234). By Rob Withers. + REVIEW OF: Rickford Grant. (2004). Linux for Non-Geeks: a Hands-on, Project-based, Take-it-slow Guidebook. San Francisco, CA: No Starch Press. (ISBN: 1593270348). By Wilfred Drew. + REVIEW OF: Peter Griffiths. (2004). Managing Your Internet and Intranet Services: The Information Professional's Guide to Strategy, Second Edition. London: Facet Publishing. (ISBN: 1856043401). By Michelle Mach. + REVIEW OF: Alan Schwartz. (2004). SpamAssassin. Sebastopol, CA: O'Reilly.(ISBN: 0596007078). By Ray Olszewski.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Documents in the News Source: WMD.gov Just Released: The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction: Report to the President -- Seismic Activity--Map Source: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (via ReliefWeb) Global tectonic activity map of the earth (PDF; 853 KB) "Tectonism and vulcanism of the last one million years." Cool. -- Economics--Statistics Source: UN Economic Commission for Europe Statistics For Europe And North America Division's database currently presents a structured set of economic indicators for countries of the UNECE region. The statistics provided by this service are the empirical basis for the Economic Survey of Europe and other analyses carried out by the Secretariat of the Economic Commission for Europe. Emphasis has been placed on making the data ready for international comparison and immediate analytical use, as well as on making them easy to find. Users may be particularly interested in the statistics on CIS and central and eastern European countries, which are difficult to find elsewhere in a single integrated database. Data are updated on a daily basis and the content will progressively be increased to cover more domains." Thanks to Stuart B. for the resource tip.
Search Briefs (via SEW Blog) + FirstGov Requests Info from Search Vendors + More Searchable Video on the Way: Blinkx Signs Deal with Reuters + Google Files Annual Report With SEC Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries Source: SLA, ALA, AALL, ALISE, ARL, MLA U.S. library associations set up Library Disaster Relief Fund to rebuild libraries destroyed by the tsunami -- NARA--Electronic Records Source: Federal Computer Week E-records research in jeopardy "Archivists and historians nationwide are mounting a major campaign to stop the dismantling of the National Archives and Records Administration's grants program, which is responsible for electronic records research. Office of Management and Budget officials slashed all funding for the 70-year-old National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC) in President Bush's proposed fiscal 2006 budget. In addition to e-records research, NHPRC funds historical projects." -- Digital Storage Source: NIST How Long Should Digital Storage Media Last? "Knowing that CDs and DVDs will last for a certain number of years is critical to many government agencies, as well as to hospitals, banks and other organizations that store massive amounts of vital data on optical disks. But, how long is long enough?"
Scholarly Publishing--Citation Reports Source: ISI + Most-Cited Countries: The Top Ten, 1994-2004 + Psychiatry: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Dentistry, Oral Surgery & Medicine + Space Science: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Commuting--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: U.S. Census Just Released, Americans Spend More Than 100 Hours Commuting to Work Each Year, Census Bureau Reports "Americans spend more than 100 hours commuting to work each year, according to American Community Survey (ACS) data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. This exceeds the two weeks of vacation time (80 hours) frequently taken by workers over the course of a year. For the nation as a whole, the average daily commute to work lasted about 24.3 minutes in 2003." Rankings include: State ||| County ||| Place ||| Extreme Commutes -- Documents in the News Independent Inquiry Committee, United Nations United Nations Oil-For-Food Program, 2nd Interim Report -- Albert Einstein--Audio Source: The British Library New, Available For Purchase: Previously unpublished and rare recordings of Einstein "A rare recording of the celebrated fund-raising dinner at the Savoy Hotel in 1930, at which Bernard Shaw famously described Albert Einstein as a 'maker of universes', is the centrepiece of a new CD published by the British Library today. It also contains what is believed to be the first commercial release of Albert Einstein explaining his Special Theory of Relativity, the formula e=mc 2." Learn More and Listen to Two Clips. -- Military Science--Digital Library Source: Combined Arms Research Library (CARL) CARL Digital Library "These electronic collections are largely composed of digital versions of paper documents from the Combined Arms Research Library collections. The CARL will continue to select and digitize appropriate documents to meet the original goals of preservation and dissemination." Search across all collections or search each indivually. Collections include: + WW II Operational Documents: "During WW II the primary mission of CGSC was to train large numbers of captains and majors to be staff officers in battalions, brigades, divisions, and corps. To that end, the Army provided copies of documents produced by field units to the College. Operations orders, after action reports, intelligence analyses, logistics appraisals, and similar documents are in the CARL documents collection. As time and funds permit the CARL will scan these historical documents and add them to the WW II collection. Primary focus will be on documenting operations at the tactical and operational levels of warfare." + School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) Monographs: "The School of Advanced Military Studies (SAMS) is one of the parts of the CGSC. Most SAMS students complete the regular CGSC course, then stay for a second academic year. They write either one or two monographs and are awarded a Master of Military Art and Science (MMAS) graduate degree. Most go on to planning jobs in field units. This collection will eventually contain all the publicly releasable monographs produced since the program began in 1986. SAMS monographs typically address historical events, current operational issues, or new organizational concepts and tend to be in the 50-75 page range." + Master of Military Art and Science(MMAS) Theses: "The Master of Military Art and Science (MMAS) program began in 1964. CGSC regular course students may elect to take a set of electives, write a thesis, and earn an accredited Masters. This collection will eventually contain all of the publicly releasable theses. MMAS theses provide in-depth research on historical events, operational issues, and organizations, both existing and proposed and tend to be in the 100-200 page range." + Stability Operations & Support Operations (SOSO): "Today's contemporary operating environment requires the U.S. military to participate in a broad spectrum of missions ranging from conventional full-scale war to peacekeeping operations and disaster relief. SOSO require soldiers in peacekeeping operations to promote and sustain regional and global stability and to assist civil authorities prepare for, or respond to, crises. This collection contains lessons learned, reports, doctrinal materials, and monographs relevant to SOSO, and is not limited to Army or DoD sources."
Web Search Briefs (via SEW Blog) + Ready Reference on the Go: New Mobile Version of Answers.com Now Available + LookSmart Launches Several Vertical Search Engines, Don't Forget What Libraries Offer + Yahoo Unveils Social Networking Service in Limited Release Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf USA PATRIOT Act Source: Judiciary Committee, U.S. House of Representatives U.S. House Judiciary Committee Announces Plans for PATRIOT Act Reauthorization Hearings "'The Committee plans an ambitious hearing and oversight schedule in April and May, kicked off by Attorney General Alberto Gonzales testifying before the full Committee on April 6. Eight hearings (roughly 2 oversight hearings per week) at the subcommittee level will continue through April and into May on the 16 sunsetting PATRIOT Act provisions.'" -- Search Engines Source: XEROX PARC The New Sensemakers: The Next Thing Beyond Search Is Sensemaking -- Serials Source: OCLC Systems & Services (via E-LIS) Transforming Thyself: Serials Agents in a Digital World "This article discusses the impact of electronic resources on the suite of services provided by serials agents. The article describes the changing needs of academic libraries in this new environment, and the ways in which serials agents can repurpose themselves to remain a cornerstone of serials management. A white paper by R2 Consulting is referenced for its insights into the expectations and requirements of academic libraries."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents VoIP Source: IEEE Spectrum Seven Myths about Voice over IP "Voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP, is one of the fastest-growing, and most misunderstood, technologies in the world at the moment. Confusion, outdated beliefs, and urban mythology reign over such simple issues as how it works, the quality of the calls, and, of course, how much it costs. VoIP calls are not free now, and they never will be. As things are shaping up, though, they're so cheap that carriers are letting customers make all the calls they want for a single monthly fee, typically US $25 to $35." -- Internet Filtering--Bahrain Source: OpenNet Initiative New Report, Internet Filtering in Bahrain in 2004-2005 -- Aviation--United States--Statistics Source: NTSB (via DocuTicker.com) NTSB Reports Decrease In Aviation Accidents In 2004 -- Health--United States--Children Source: Child.com (Child magazine) The 10 Best and Worst States for Fit Kids ""Most states are failing kids and their parents," says Suzanne Smith, an obesity expert and an adviser for our story. Read on to see if your state is among the best or the worst." Monday, March 28, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries and Librarianship Source: Access New Issue, Access: Asia's Newspaper on Electronic Information Products & Services -- Enterprise Search Source: Information Today Endeca Provides Latitude for Information Retrieval and Analysis -- Web Sites Source: Library and Information Research (via E-LIS) Accessing library web page usability: how benchmarking can help "This article looks at how the "Mystery Shopper" methodology used by a consortium of universities was adapted to assess the usability of the library web pages of all four universities. Using a methodology refined from a previous web usability exercise, the various elements in the process are described. The outcomes of the project are briefly discussed, along with lessons learnt from the process." Direct to Full Text.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Business--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: BusinessWeek The BusinessWeek 50 2005 + Company Profiles + Executive Compensation Table -- Canada--Electronic Government Source: Public Works and Government Services Canada Just Released, Canada Government On-line, Annual Report 2005 -- Education--United States Source: U.S. Census Just Released, College Degree Nearly Doubles Annual Earnings, Census Bureau Reports New information from the U.S. Census Bureau reinforces the value of a college education: workers 18 and over with a bachelor?s degree earn an average of $51,206 a year, while those with a high school diploma earn $27,915. Workers with an advanced degree make an average of $74,602, and those without a high school diploma average $18,734. According to new tables released on the Internet titled Educational Attainment in the United States: 2004, 85 percent of those age 25 or older reported they had completed at least high school and 28 percent had attained at least a bachelor's degree. Other highlights for the population 25 years and over in 2004: + Minnesota, Montana, Wyoming and Nebraska had the highest proportions of people with at least a high school diploma, all around 91 percent. Summary ||| Summary Table ||| Detailed Tables -- Adolf Eichmann--CIA Files Source: National Security Archive Uncovering the Architect of the Holocaust: The CIA Names File on Adolf Eichmann "The CIA was surprised by Israeli agents' capture of Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann in Argentina in 1960, and a subsequent CIA file review uncovered extensive ties between Eichmann and men who served as CIA assets and allies (like Franz Alfred Six and Otto Von Bolschwing), according to the CIA's three-volume Directorate of Operations file and their Directorate of Intelligence file on Eichmann, posted today by the National Security Archive at George Washington University." -- Investment Fraud Source: North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) NASAA's 2005 Top 10 Threats to Investors "The following ranking of NASAA's Top 10 threats to investors for 2005 is based on the order of prevalence and seriousness as identified by an annual survey of state securities regulators. Click on a title for details." Sunday, March 27, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf School Libraries--Virtual Reference Source: Knowledge Quest on the Web Virtual Reference @ Your Library Sarah Houghton writes, "I believe school libraries and the students they serve have the most to gain from real-time online reference. The users, in this case students, are generally very comfortable with computers and with chat technology. In fact, many of them would rather chat online with a teacher or librarian than ask for help in person. I have seen students in the public library chatting away on an online reference service, while there is a real-life librarian sitting not twenty feet away at the reference desk. Clearly 'online' is a preferred medium, at least for some students."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents U.S. History--Civil Rights--Archives Broadcast Journalism--Archives Video Archives Source: University of Virginia (via aScribe) The Television News of the Civil Rights Era 1950-1970: A New Digital Archive at The University of Virginia "The Civil Rights Era in Virginia was contentious, pitting black against white, neighbor against neighbor and communities against legislation - a microcosm of the years of social upheaval in communities across America. A new archive at the Virginia Center for Digital History at the University of Virginia brings to life that period of our National history through filmed local civil rights events and the words and actions of citizen and national activists in Roanoke, Va. The archive, which received support from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and is housed in U.Va.'s Alderman Library, contains film and scripts from two Roanoke TV stations: CBS affiliate WDBJ and NBC affiliate WSLS. The archival footage highlights local coverage of school desegregation, massive resistance, school meetings, civil rights debates, and interviews with key players and concerned citizens in the community, as well as speeches given by Martin Luther King Jr., John F. Kennedy, Richard Nixon and the governors of the commonwealth of Virginia." Material can be viewed online, Quick Time required. See Also: Direct to the Television News of the Civil Rights Era Archive -- American Memory Project James Madison--Online Exhibition Source: ABC News U.S. Library to Put Madison Papers Online "...Madison's 'Notes for a Speech in Congress' of June 8, 1789, will be available online, along with about 12,000 other pages from his papers preserved in the Library of Congress. Some are in code, including letters to President Thomas Jefferson, for whom Madison served as secretary of state." More from the Library of Congress. See Also: Direct to The James Madison Papers Saturday, March 26, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Preservation Source: JISC Tackling digital preservation: a discussion with leading experts "We take paper for granted as a storage medium for knowledge. Libraries, where many of us seek out this knowledge, have evolved over many centuries, enabling us to store and retrieve paper mediums - such as books or journals - reasonably quickly and effectively. Along comes modern technology and information can be stored on a hard disk somewhere, accessible, as with paper based objects, for generations to come. It means we can now visit our libraries from almost anywhere at anytime. And the material we can access from these 'virtual' knowledge centres keeps growing, which is fantastic. We can rest assured that our knowledge heritage is preserved for us in these new technologically enabled electronic formats for future generations. Or is it?" -- Information Overload--Research Source: EurekaAlert When it comes to information overload, two heads may not be better than one "In an age of e-mails, databases and online catalogues, two heads may no longer be better than one, according to new ESRC-sponsored research into the effects of information overload. Problems are exacerbated when information is shared between people with different viewpoints, says a team led by Professor Tom Ormerod of Lancaster University, which revealed big variations in recall among married couples."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Information Warfare Military Science--Bibliographies Source: Air University Library Information Warfare "Has the computer revolution altered how future wars will be conducted?" A new bibliography that include Internet resources, books, documents, periodicals. -- Civil Rights Commission--United StatesLegislative Histories Source: U.S. House Judiciary Committee Just Published, Legislative History of the Civil Rights Commission This legislative history includes: Committee Reports; Congressional Record; Court Opinions: and, News Articles. 566 pages; PDF. Thanks to C.L. for the tip. Friday, March 25, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf Digital Archiving Source: Digital Preservation Coalition Full Text Report, The large-scale archival storage of digital objects A new report by Jim Linden, Sean Martin, Richard Masters, and Roderic Parker from The British Library. -- National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) Source: NARA National Archives Opens New Pacific Region Records Center Facility "The 183,000 square-foot facility can accommodate approximately 850,000 cubic feet of Federal records. It will employ over 30 National Archives staff members and will process a projected 750,000 reference requests per year. The new center will store and service records from over 100 Federal agencies and courts located in the Pacific Region (Arizona, southern California, and Clark County, Nevada). Significant holdings include Federal records created by regional U.S. District/Bankruptcy Courts, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and the U.S. Navy."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Maps Source: ManagingInformation.com British Library Puts 800 Historic Maps Online From the article, "In the centuries up to 1600 the contours of the British Isles were gradually revealed as successive generations of conquerors, monks, sailors, kings and nobles endeavoured to map the boundaries and resources of these islands. This fascinating process can now be explored online through digitised versions of over 800 items from the British Library's maps collection, ranging from Saxon times to the reign of James I. The maps can be viewed as part of 'The Unveiling of Britain' at: www.collectbritain.co.uk/collections/unveiling/ 'The Unveiling of Britain' allows users to explore items either as large images or using a zoom facility. Each map is accompanied by detailed explanatory notes, establishing the historical context of the map?s creation, with insights into emerging technologies used in its production and the political background to what it might contain or exclude." -- Energy Industry--Glossary Source: OPIS (Oil Price Information Service) OPIS Energy Glossary Browse terms and definitions alphabetically, from Abandonment Rule to Y-Grade. -- File Sharing--United States Source: The Pew Internet & American Life Project Music And Video Downloading Moves Beyond P2P From press release: "About 36 million Americans ? or 27 percent of Internet users ? say they download either music or video files and about half of them have found ways outside of traditional peer-to-peer networks or paid online services to swap their files, according to the most recent survey of the Pew Internet & American Life Project." -- Spam Source: SophosLabs (via DocuTicker) Experts at SophosLabs identify Cialis as the top word spammers most commonly try to disguise Included is a list of the words most commonly obfuscated in spam emails.
Briefly Mobile Information + Cool! Location-Based Maps and Local Info Direct to Your Cell Phone + Gigablast Adds Releated Pages Feature Thursday, March 24, 2005
Resource of the Week by Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor OECD--Factbooks Source: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development OECD Factbook 2005: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics We apprised you of this compendium about a week ago here on ResourceShelf. Now we're going to take a more detailed look at it. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, headquartered in Paris, identifies itself as "a unique forum where the governments of 30 market democracies work together to address the economic, social, environmental and governance challenges of the globalising world economy, as well as to exploit its opportunities." Its 30 members together produce some 60% of the world's goods and services. Basically, it facilitates information sharing among the membership, and it generates its own data, analyses and forecasts. It came into existence as "an economic counterpart to NATO," set up after World War II "to co-ordinate the Marshall Plan for the reconstruction of Europe." If you're interested, a detailed overview of the organization is available. The OECD Factbook 2005 is the first edition of a new annual publication that "will draw on the OECD's data bank of statistics to present a unique overview of economic, social and environmental trends in the OECD's 30 member countries." It is structured around "100 indicators" grouped into 11 topic areas: + Population and migration, covering demographic trends and international migration + Economic globalisation, covering international trade and foreign direct investment + Labor market, covering employment and unemployment + Environment, covering air, water and land, and energy use + Public policies, covering government deficits and debt, public expenditures and aid, and taxes + Macroeconomic trends, covering gross domestic product, economic growth, productivity, and commodities (production and supply) + Prices, covering consumer and producer prices, and purchasing power and competitiveness + Science and technology, covering research and development, and information and communications technology + Education, covering expenditures on education and outcomes + Quality of life, covering health, work and leisure, crime, and transportation A special Focus on Energy topic contains a wealth of statistical data on such things as the world energy supply, oil prices, energy production and consumption, and world electricity generation. When you click on one of the many, many specific data links, you get a page offering a general discussion of that topic and links to related graphs, charts and tables, additional commentary and related resources from the OECD. Under each chart and graph, a statlink takes you to a direct download of the relevant data in Excel spreadsheet format. If you prefer, the last link on the righthand side of these pages allows you to download all the information in the main topic heading as a PDF file, such as this one for Quality of Life. These are attractively formatted for printing...or you can just go ahead and order a dead.tree version of the factbook, which costs $63 (in U.S. dollars). OECD says the factbook will be available in French in early April, and it can also be accessed via SourceOECD (PDF), a portal which aggregates online OECD books, periodicals and statistical databases. The OECD Factbook is not searchable itself, but the OECD website is; enter a keyword in the text box at the top righthand side of the page and choose the resource you want to search from the dropdown menu: all publications, books, periodicals, databases, other site content.
Professional Reading Shelf Digitization Projects--Australia Source: Computerworld Australia Race against time to digitize decaying images "If the thought of backing up e-mail evokes feelings of dread, spare a thought for Australia's librarians who are racing against the clock to digitize millions of decaying photographic images before nature has its cruel way. While IT managers may worry about whether their document management solutions are legally up to scratch, photographic curators - charged with the safekeeping of Australia's pictorial history - have to deal with a pervading smell of vinegar as their cellulose assets shrivel and die. NSW chief librarian Dagmar Schmidmaier, who runs the state's largest collection of images and documents at the Mitchell Library (NSW State Library), said the first priority is to make sure all key historical areas are covered and no eras get lost."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Searchable Databases--Fast Facts and Statistics New Searchable Databases Added to Melissa Data Lookup Index You can now search and retrieve Home Sales by ZIP Code and Labor Statistics by ZIP. If you've never seen all (25+) of the useful searchable tools Melissa Data offers (free), they're more than worth a look. Here's an overview that was written in 2003. -- Social Security Medicare Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Just Released, 2005 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees of the Hospital Insurance and Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds "The Trustees Report is a detailed, lengthy document, containing a substantial amount of information on the past and estimated future financial operations of the Hospital Insurance and Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds. We recommend that readers begin with the 'Overview' section of the report. This section is fairly short, is written in 'plain English,' and summarizes all the key information concerning the expected financial outlook for Medicare. Substantial additional material is available in the later sections for those wishing to delve more deeply into the actuarial projections." 2005 Report (PDF; 1.2 MB) Previous years' reports also available from this page. See Also: The 2005 OASDI Trustees Report "The 2005 Annual Report of the Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Disability Insurance Trust Funds, was issued on March 23, 2005. The report presents the current and projected future financial status of the trust funds."
Briefly + Now Live on the Web, Oxford Digital Reference Shelf from the Oxford University Press Fee-based, "...fully-searchable e-book versions of major multi-volume reference works." Direct to web site. Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf Information Policy--United States Open Access Source: Federal Library and Information Center Committee (FLICC) LIVE WEBCAST Tomorrow (3/24/05): 2005 FLICC Forum on Federal Information Policies The forum is titled, "Evolving Information Policy: Open Access and New Constraints." Details and speaker list here. The webcast begins at 9am EST. The session will be archived here. Past FLICC events can also be viewed online. -- Virtual Reference Source: Knowledge Quest on the Web (Journal of the American Association of School Librarians) Answers at Your Fingertips: Live Internet Reference for Teachers, Students, Parents, and Library Media Specialists -- Metadata Dublin Core Source: UKOLN Updated, DC-assist (Dublin Core Assist) "UKOLN's help utility for metadata applications, has been updated to include details and examples for all the metadata terms currently in DCMI maintained namespaces (67 terms). The software includes 130 examples of how to use the terms and these are displayed using the DCMI recommended XHTML syntax." -- Library Associations--Australia Source: Australian Library and Information Association (ALIA) New Issue of aliaNews Now Online -- Dissertations--Lists & Rankings Source: ProQuest Top 10 Best-Selling Doctoral Dissertations of 2003 The Top 3 Master's Theses are also listed.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Social Trends--United Kingdom--Statistics Source: National Statistics Just Released, Social Trends in the UK "The United Kingdom population is ageing and within 10 years there will be more people aged 65 and over than children under 16, according to Social Trends published today by the Office for National Statistics. This is the 35th year of Social Trends and the publication looks back over these years of social change in a special review by National Statistician Len Cook and Research Director Jean Martin." Summary ||| Full Text -- Humanities--United States Source: Congressional Research Service Updated, Arts and Humanities: Background and Funding -- Highways--History--United States Transportation--Digitized Collections Source: U.S. Department of Transportation Library Just Released, Online Digital Special Collection, Turner and Fairbank Papers You'll also find links to other digitized collections.
Briefly + H.W. Wilson Will Release Art Museum Image Gallery in July "H.W. Wilson will launch the Art Museum Image Gallery in July 2005 to replace The AMICO Library, which will be discontinued with the dissolution of the AMICO consortium." Tuesday, March 22, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf Copyright--United States Source: ALA Washington Office ALA Washington Office Provides Update on Library Community Filing on Orphan Works -- Academic Libraries Source: AP 'Sexy' library worker pursues discrimination case against Harvard "Jury selection is expected to begin today in a discrimination lawsuit brought by a Harvard University assistant librarian. Desiree Goodwin says she has been turned down for 16 promotions during her eleven years working at Harvard." -- Professional Reading Shelf Libraries--Finances Source: Emerald This Week Only: Free Full Text Access to Three Recent Issues of The Bottom Line: Managing Library Finances Articles include: + Simplifying serials sourcing: A case study in decision support for managing electronic journals access (Vol. 18 No. 1) + The Canadian National Site Licensing Project and the logic model (Vol. 18 No. 1) + Thoughts on endowment fundraising for libraries (Vol. 18 No. 1) + Executive compensation in libraries: an oxymoron? (Vol. 17 No. 4) + Measure by measure: assessing the viability of the physical library (Vol. 17 No. 4) + Using the world of blogs for project and financial management (Vol. 17 No. 3) + What you don't know about banking could hurt your library (Vol. 17 No. 3) -- Preservation Source: DCC Call For Papers: Ensuring Long-term Preservation and Adding Value to Scientific and Technical Data
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Automobile Travel--Fuel Costs Source: AAA AAA Fuel Cost Calculator "Calculate the estimated fuel cost of your trip" based on current gasoline prices. Choose your starting point, destination, make/model/year of vehicle from dropdown menus and click "Calculate." Map on page shows current day's average fuel costs in different regions of the country. -- Health Information New Topic Page/Compilation from MEDLINEPlus Source: NLM + Heart Surgery -- Medicinal Plants Source: Science Reference Service, Library of Congress Medicinal Plants "This Tracer Bullet has been compiled to assist researchers in navigating the databases, electronic resources and print materials related to medicinal plants and to locate relevant materials in the Library's collections. Lists of other agencies, institutions, and organizations are provided as starting points for further study. Not intended to be a comprehensive bibliography, this guide is designed--as the name of the series implies--to put the reader 'on target.'" -- Undergraduate Education--Statistics Source: National Center for Education Statistics Trends in Undergraduate Career Education "This Issue Brief examines trends in undergraduate credentials (certificates, associate's degrees, and bachelor's degrees) in career-related areas of study. These trends are examined at both the subbaccalaureate and baccalaureate levels, from 1984-85 to 2000-01. The number of undergraduate credential awards increased over this period, in both academic and career areas, and at both the subbaccalaureate and baccalaureate levels." Full Report (PDF; 79 KB) Supplementary Graphs (PDF; 29 KB) -- Topics in the News Source: Findlaw Terri Schiavo Case: Legal Issues Involving Healthcare Directives, Death, and Dying Various document including legal filings.
Search Briefs + Scirus Adds More than 13 Million Patents to Database + Wikipedia Users Should Check Out WikiWax If you're a Wikipedia user this new dynamic query suggestion tool might be a welcome addition to your research arsenal. + Eliyon.com Becomes ZoomInfo It's still free to use. Potentially useful for researching people but MANY caveats still apply. Information Today has more. + 1871 UK Census Now Available in Full Online for the First Time
Briefly + Factiva Tests RSS (via LibraryStuff) + 1,000 Cambridge University Press Titles Now Included in Questia (via BookTech Magazine) + ProQuest to Distribute ACM Journals Monday, March 21, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf Preservation Source: IFLA First, do no harm - A Register of Standards, Codes of Practice, Guidelines Recommendations and Similar Works relating to Preservation and Conservation in Libraries and Archives Compiled by: John McIlwaine -- Digitization Projects--UK Source: ALA British Library to Digitize World's Oldest Bible "Experts from the four institutions that own parts of what scholars consider the oldest extant version of both the Old and New Testaments in one volume launched a project March 11 to create a complete copy of the Codex Sinaiticus online."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Information Technology--United States--Higher Education Source: EDUCAUSE The Pocket Guide to U.S. Higher Education 2005 " The EDUCAUSE Pocket Guide to U.S. Higher Education 2005 provides a series of markers that outline the shape and complexity of higher education. This guide identifies relevant resources and organizations, providing timely and useful information about the college and university market--institutions, students, faculty, college stores, meetings, publications, technology issues, organizational behavior, and more. The guide is compiled annually in partnership with The Campus Computing Project." 69 pages; PDF. -- National Endowment for the Arts--Guide Source: National Endowment for the Arts National Endowment for the Arts 2005 Guide (PDF; 2.67 MB) "This guide presents an overview of all the areas in which the NEA makes a difference: grantmaking and national initiatives, partnerships and research, accessibility and arts learning."
Archives--Media Grassroots Media Source: Ourmedia New Resource, Official Launch: Ourmedia "The Global Home for grassroots media." It's a new resource (free to use). + Host/Publish/Archive your media (videos, audio files, photos, text or software) + Host/Publish your own blog From the FAQ, "Members of the creative community, technologists, educators, librarians and others interested in spreading digital culture are behind Ourmedia. Leading the effort are J.D. Lasica, a writer, editor with the Online Journalism Review, and evangelist for participatory media, and Marc Canter, a well-known technologist and open standards advocate who co-founded the company that became software giant Macromedia. This is purely an open-source, all-volunteer effort." The Internet Archive, Wikipedia, and other organizations are involved. Congrats to J.D. Lasica (he's been supporter of ResourceShelf and DocuTicker since the very beginning) and the Ourmedia team. See Also: Ourmedia's Plans for the Future Note, they're looking for help developing a taxonomy. This is one area (of many) that the info profession can get involved. Sunday, March 20, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf News Publications--Academia Source: Chicago Tribune Academic weekly gets Web-based rival "In the academic world, the Chronicle of Higher Education is the newspaper of record. From stories of embattled administrators to the latest faculty appointments, its 140-plus pages have provided readers with industry news, job listings and similar information each week for nearly 40 years. Last January, three ex-employees challenged the Chronicle's grip on academic news by going online with a free, Web-based rival, insidehighered.com." -- Travel Research Mobile Access to Information Source: Contra Costa Times Popular travel tools get to-go versions
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Patents--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: USPTO USPTO Releases List of Top 10 Universities Receiving Most Patents in 2004 [The] United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) today announced the top 10 U.S. universities receiving the most patents during calendar year 2004. Listed below are the 10 universities receiving the most patents for inventions in 2004, along with their 2003 ranking. The University of California tops the list for the 11th consecutive year." -- Civil Rights--History--Documents Source: Thurgood Marshall Law Library, University of Maryland School of Law Historical Publications of the United States Commission on Civil Rights "In conjunction with the Thurgood Marshall Law Library's strategic plan to enhance its civil rights collection in support of the School of Law's teaching and research mission, the Library has worked since 2001 to create a complete electronic record of United States Commission on Civil Rights publications held in the Library's collection and available on the USCCR Web site. The publications are made available over the Internet as page image presentations in PDF format. Each item is linked to the appropriate bibliographic record in the Catalog. Publications are also searchable by keyword and accessible by date and title." Saturday, March 19, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf Mobile Access to Info Japan Cell-Phone Users Turn to Literature We keep saying mobile access and mobile search are going to be huge. Will downloading books to your mobile phone or mobile device (Blackberry/Treo) be another new service libraries offer? From the article, "Several mobile Web sites offer hundreds of novels -- classics, best sellers and some works written especially for the medium. It takes some getting used to. Only a few lines pop up at a time because the phone screen is about half the size of a business card. But improvements in the quality of liquid-crystal displays and features such as automatic page-flipping, or scrolling, make the endeavor far more enjoyable than you'd imagine." -- Libraries--Awards Source: National Endowment for the Humanities NEH Announces We the People Bookshelf Awards to 500 Libraries; 15 Classic Books on "Freedom" Will Support Community Programs "The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) today announced that it has awarded free copies of 15 classic books from the We the People Bookshelf, with four also offered in Spanish, to 500 school and local libraries throughout the country. The theme of this year's bookshelf is "freedom." As part of the award, libraries will hold programs or events to raise awareness of these classic books and engage young readers." Full list of award winners (PDF; 44 KB) -- Public Libraries Bookstores Source: Library and Information Research Change in store? An investigation into the impact of the book superstore environment on use, perceptions and expectations of the public library as a space, place and experience "The book superstore is promoted not just as a place to buy books but also as a community resource in which to read, learn and socialise: traits that have in combination traditionally been the preserve of the public library. This study investigates the impact of the bookstore environment on public library space. The attitudes and behaviours of library and bookstore users were examined through focus group interviews and a self-completed questionnaire. Clear areas of overlap in the functions of the two sites were found, as was evidence of age and income-related splits in use and perception of bookstores and libraries. Results suggest attention should be paid to the beliefs and behaviours of young people and middle-income earners (the groups most noticeably increasing their use of the bookstore) and to the desired balance of education and recreation in the image and nature of the public library."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents U.S. Department of Defense Source: DOD Three New U.S. Department of Defense Publications + The National Defense Strategy of the United States of America (PDF; 1.61 MB) + The National Military Strategy of the United States of America (PDF; 456 KB) + Two Years in Iraq -- The Mission Continues: A New Iraq Emerges (special report) Friday, March 18, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf RSS Source: EI Update RSS: Moving Into the Mainstream "By now, many are using RSS feeds to keep track of weblogs, journal tables-of-contents, press releases, newspaper content, and more. In addition to following dozens of weblogs of interest, I use RSS to keep track of movie reviews from the New York Times, search engine alerts, and library-related weblogs and resources. The application of RSS feeds has moved into the library world, riding the wave of hundreds of library-related weblogs and other services." Column by Randy Reichardt, Cameron Science and Technology Library, University of Alberta. -- Legal Documents--Korea Source: Korea Times (via APMN) Korea: Legal Documents Will Go Online "People will no longer have to visit police stations, prosecutors' offices, courthouses and penitentiaries to get legal documents on criminal cases as an online database will be set up in 2007." -- Scholarly Publishing Source: First Monday Economics of scientific and biomedical journals: Where do scholars stand in the debate of online journal pricing and site license ownership between libraries and publishers? "The emergence of e-journals brought a great change in scholarly communication and in the behavior of scholars. However, the importance of scholars' behavior in the pricing of scientific journals has been largely ignored in the recent debate between libraries and publishers over site license practices and pricing schemes. Stanford's survey results indicate that sharply increasing costs are the main reason for individual subscription cancellation, driving users to rely on library or other institutional subscriptions. Libraries continue to be a vital information provider in the electronic era and their bargaining power in the market and the importance of roles in scholarly communication will be increased by branding and a strong relationship with users."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Country Studies--Taiwan Source: Federal Research Division/Library of Congress Just Released, Country Profile for Taiwan 29 pages; PDF See Also: More Country Profiles from FRD -- Freedom of Information Act Source: EPIC New Newsletter, EPIC FOIA Notes See Also: EPIC's New 2005 FOIA Gallery "...contains highlights and scanned images of some of EPIC's FOIA disclosures from the past year." -- Education--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Education Revenues Top $440 Billion; D.C. Spent the Most Per Student, Utah the Least "Public elementary and secondary education revenues from federal, state and local sources reached $440.3 billion in the United States in 2003, up 4.9 percent from the previous year, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. Again, the District of Columbia spent the most money per student on this level of education ($13,328) of any state or state equivalent. These findings from the 2003 Annual Survey of Local Government Finances - School Systems show that following the District of Columbia in per-student expenditures were New Jersey ($12,202), New York ($12,140), Connecticut ($10,372) and Vermont ($10,322). Utah spent the lowest amount ($4,860) of any state or state equivalent. Next to Utah, the lowest averages per pupil were in Arizona ($5,672), Mississippi ($5,816), Idaho ($6,034) and Nevada ($6,084). The national average was $8,019." Summary ||| Direct to Full Text (Select 2003) -- Weather--United States--Outlooks Source: NOAA/NCDC Just Released, NOAA Issues 2005 Spring Outlook
Briefly + DHS to use MetaCarta (via FCW) See Also: Just What is MetaCarta (Geographical Text Searching)? + Index to Jewish Periodicals now Available on EBSCOhost
Search Briefs (via the SEW Blog) + France, Digitization Projects and Google -- + Engine Manipulation, Verticals, and the Library Thursday, March 17, 2005
Resource of the Week by Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor Educational Resources--Hub Source: U.S. Department of Education Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) This week's resources is a "gem" in every sense of the word. "A U.S. Department of Education initiative, The Gateway to Educational Materials (GEM) expands educators' capability to access Internet-based lesson plans, instructional units and other educational materials in all forms and formats. GEM's goal is to improve the organization and accessibility of the substantial collections of materials that are already available on various federal, state, university, non-profit, and commercial Internet sites." As of March 8, 2005, the GEM collection included 42,450 resources, each one "carefully indexed using characteristics that educators find useful such as subject, grade level, pedagogy, and Ğaudienceğ for the resource." On the home page, you'll find a GEM Spotlight feature, with pointers to relevant materials in the database. For March, it's Women's History, since this is Women's History Month. Previous Spotlight features are available on an archives page. If you want to browse the collection, there are many different options: resource subject, type, level, keywords, mediator (who should use the resource -- e.g., teacher, librarian, administrator, etc.), beneficiary (specific student population -- e.g., disabled, bilingual, etc.), and priceCode (basically "fee status" -- e.g., "Free", "Partially free", "Not free"). You can find detailed information about browsing the collection. The search engine here looks deceptively simple -- a small text box and a dropdown menu at the upper right corner of the home page -- but some very sophisticated technology is powering this thing. Called "faceted searching," it "combines the processes of searching for specific words and phrases somewhat as one does in Yahoo! and Google with browsing descriptions of resources based on what are called facets." A "facet" is a metadata element or property. (Note the availability of a detailed glossary of terms used on the site, part of an extensive help section.) The search engine uses the Seamark Navigation Server from Siderean Software. Each record contains a brief description of the resource; click on the "show full view" box at the lower righthand corner to get additional information, such as subject area, mediator, provider, price code, record creation date, etc. Subject, mediator and price code are live links that you can click to explore other resources with those tags, as is the resource type (e.g., lesson plan, activity, etc.) indentified in the description. You can also explore via the navigation bar that appears on the lefthand side of the results page, which allows you to refine your search by clicking on live links to refine your search by subject, resource type, grade level, keyword, mediator, beneficiary or price code. To initiate a search, type your query into the text box and click "go". The default option is full-text search of all GEM records. If you prefer to search by "facet" instead, choose title, description or keywords from the dropdown menu, and your search will be restricted to that particular record field." Search help is available, as is a guide for first-time users. GEM is actually a "consortium effort" comprised of members who make their resource collections available here and members who use and promote the resources. You can apply for membership in the consortium, but you do not have to be a member or register in any way to search and use what's here. When you browse the member directory, click on the member's name for a brief description and a link to its home page and rights/permissions information.
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries--United Kingdom Source: BBC Libraries 'in scandalous state' "The deterioration in the quality of public library buildings is scandalous, a committee of MPs says."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents OECD--Factbooks Source: OECD Just Released, OECD launches new Factbook of economic, environmental and social indicators "Labour market data, broken down by age, gender, part-time working or self-employment provide just some of the 100 major indicators to be found in this annual digest of economic, environmental and social statistics covering the organisations 30 member nations. The data - available in book form and online is accompanied by explanatory analysis and easy-to-read charts to enable clear cross-country comparisons of long-term trends in the following areas: * Population and migration * Macroeconomic trends * Economic globalisation * Prices * Labour market * Science and technology * Energy * Environment * Education * Public policies * Quality of life Most of the indicators present the latest available, internationally-comparable figures together with historical data going back at least 10 years. The Factbook also provides some projections of future trends in areas such as population ageing, economics and the environment. The online version, freely available at http://new.SourceOECD.org/factbook. Thanks to S.B. for the news tip. -- Personal Computers--Statistics Source: Computer Industry Almanac PCs In-Use Surpassed 820M in 2004; PCs In-Use Will Top 1B in 2005 "The worldwide number of PCs in-use surpassed 820 million in 2004 and is projected to top 1 billion in 2007. PCs in-use growth is slowing as the industrialized world is approaching the top of the S-curve. Strong PC growth will continue in the developing countries for another decade. The U.S. has a large lead with over 220M PCs in-use--over 3X the number in Japan. The U.S. accounts for over 27% of all PCs in-use compared to 4.6% of worldwide population. PC usage is growing rapidly in China, which is expected to surpass Japan in 2007. PC usage is also growing strongly in many populous countries such as Brazil, India and Russia."
Search Briefs + RSS Search Engine Feedster Improves On Already Robust Search Syntax (via SEW Blog) Want a proximity operator? Feedster has one.
Wireless Web News Health Information The Merck Manual and Other Medical Resources Now Available for Mobile Web Users The Merck Manual, Pocket Guide to Diagnostic Tests, Reuters Medical News, and MEDLINE Journal Abstracts are now available for the mobile web. Registration required, free. You can either download the material to your PDA or access with your wireless web browser. -- RSS RSS Headlines Delivered via SMS (Text Messaging) With FeedBeep -- Legal Research Source: Law Office Computing Conduct legal research on your BlackBerry A new article by ResourceShelf friend, Genie Tyburski. Wednesday, March 16, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf Conferences Live "Blog" Coverage From the 20th Annual Computers in Libraries Conference ResourceShelf's own Steven "When do you Sleep" Cohen is one of the contributors. You'll also find postings from Nancy Garman, Paula Hane, and Aaron Schmidt. -- Public Libraries--Referenda Source: Library Journal The Good Fight--Library Referenda 2004 "The year brought tougher times at the polls for America's libraries, with approval rates dropping. The 69% approval rate for referenda for public library buildings was at a low level not seen since the difficult year of 2002, when it was only 60%, slipping from the passage rate of 76% in 2003. The last time it dipped into the 60s was 1988. Operating referenda fared slightly better, with a 70% pass rate, similar to those seen in 2003 and 2002, but still significantly lower than the 83% passage rate in 1998. The last time we saw a pass rate in the 70s was in 1995. So what's happening? Are libraries still sure bets with communities at the polls? The answer lies in a complex set of variables, including geography, competition, and timing." -- Digital Libraries The March 2005 Issue of D-Lib Magazine is Now Available Articles include: + The NSF National Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics Education Digital Library (NSDL) Program + OCLC Research Publications Repository + Connotea: A Free Online Reference Management Service for Scientists -- Libraries--India Talking Books Source: BBC 'Talking library' records success "It started when her brother-in-law bought her a tape recorder and encouraged her to do something for the blind. Now 46-year-old Madhu Singhal, herself visually impaired, runs an audio library of 16,000 works in the southern Indian city of Bangalore."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Media--Lists & Rankings Source: Media Post The Media 100 A list of 100 hundred "people to know" in the media world. Thanks to J.D. for the news tip. -- Media--United States The State of the American News Media, 2005 Source: Project for Excellence in Journalism, a research institute affiliated with the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism and funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts (via DocuTicker.com) From the press release: "Traditional journalism, with its focus on substantiating facts, now competes with other models of news, such as Blogs. These faster, cheaper and less accurate alternatives have distinct advantages in the marketplace, according to a new report on the state of journalism in America." Executive Summary ||| Full Report -- Telemarketing Fraud Source: National Consumers League Telemarketing Fraud Toolbox "The Toolbox is intended to help government agencies, unions, social service agencies, schools, and nonprofit organizations educate their colleagues, constituents, clients, and members about telemarketing fraud and to promote public awareness about the assistance that they provide in that regard. The Toolbox cannot be used to promote commercial products or services."
Web Search Briefs (via SEW Blog) + New Cool Service from Amazon's A9 OpenSearch provides access to specialized databases directly onto the A9 interface. Also, it looks as if A9 is now in the weblog search business.
Scholarly Publishing--Citation Reports Source: ISI + Science in Singapore, 1999-2003 + Economics: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2003 + Social Work & Social Policy: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 1999-2002 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Astronomy & Astrophysics + Journals Ranked by Impact: Applied Linguistics Tuesday, March 15, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf Federal Depository Libraries and Others Test Virtual Reference Service Source: GPO From the web site, "Government Information Online (GIO) is a national pilot project sponsored by the Illinois State Library, OCLC, and the University of Illinois at Chicago. GPO is participating in the pilot along with more than 30 federal depository libraries from across the United States. Users of the service can interact online with government information librarians during a weekly chat schedule, or users can submit questions at any time using an email interface. To use the service, visit the project's website at http://govtinfo.org. The pilot is scheduled to run through November 14, 2005." -- Information Visualization Source: Library Journal Visualize This A look at several products including Vivisimo, Groxis, and AquaBrowser.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Bankruptcies--United States--Statistics Source: Administrative Offices of the U.S. Courts New, 2004 Bankruptcy Statistics "Bankruptcy filings in the federal courts dropped nearly 4 percent in calendar year 2004, according to data released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Total bankruptcies filed in the twelve-month period ending December 31, 2004, totaled 1,597,462, down 3.8 percent from the 1,660,245 petitions filed in the 12-month period ending December 31, 2003." -- Films--UK--Statistics Source: UK Film Council Box office and TV ratings boost for British Films in 2004 "Well-loved characters Harry Potter and Bridget Jones and historical epic Troy were the best performing British films at the UK box office in 2004, there was a 45% increase in the takings of the top 20 British films compared to 2003, and attendances increased to more than 170 million over the year with July the most popular movie-going month, according to the latest Statistical Bulletin from the UK Film Council." -- Irish Americans Source: U.S. Census Fast Facts About the Irish American Population Just in time for St. Partick's Day! -- Military Science--Bibliographies Source: Air University Library New/updated bibliographies; Internet resources, books, documents, periodicals + Followership: "Followership is just as important to Air Force officers as leadership and management." + Foreign Arms Sales" Does foreign arms sales support U.S. foreign policy?" + Law of Armed Conflict + Life Skills (Mental Health) + Women in Combat
Web Search Briefs Web Search--Clusty Clusty Now Offering Government Search and Cluster Resource Great idea and something that might be useful to many of you. Gary has posted an overview on the Search Engine Watch Blog. -- Web Search New Items from Greg Notess at Search Engine Showdown Web search guru and librarian, Greg Notess has a few new items on SES that will be of interest. + Greg has a Posted A Preliminary Review of Exalead One feature Greg doesn't mention is the ability to personalize the look of the Exalead home page. + A Look at How Web Engines Handle Long Words + Changes In How Yahoo! Handles Stop Words in a Phrases
Briefly + McGraw-Hill and Xrefer Establish Partnership for Online Reference -- + ProQuest Licenses 66 Key Medical Journals from Hodder Arnold, Mary Ann Liebert and Springer Monday, March 14, 2005
Professional Reading Shelf Law Librarians Source: Business First Lousiville Business Paper Publishes Profile of Law Librarian "With nary a "sh-sh!" to his day, library director Michael French goes about the law offices of Woodward, Hobson & Fulton LLP quietly tending to some 10,000 volumes of hardcover books that are in his charge." -- Information Industry--LexisNexis Source: Dayton Business Journal LexisNexis sees spike in '04 revenue, profit " Like its parent company, LexisNexis North America saw some good times last year. The New York-based business, which includes LexisNexis in Miami Township [Ohio], saw its revenue rise 7 percent in 2004, the company said in a recent regulatory filing of preliminary results for 2004. Much of that growth was fueled by acquisitions." -- Digital Archives--United States Source: National Science Foundation's Digital Government Research Program State Governments Grapple with Digital Archiving "They stand like tombstones in every state library - microfilm reels, thick-inked ledgers and volume upon volume of official documents and records. To find anything in these obsolete storage systems, you need to plow through a dead-tree catalogue or, if you're lucky, a microfiche index or online database. Yet as the ever-steepening tidal curve of information technology bears digital record-keeping into the future and grows too slippery for governments to keep up with, some of those old-tech storage solutions are turning out to be easier to access than supposedly modern archive systems." -- FOIA Source: AP AP Review: Gov't Reducing Access to Info "Since 1998, many federal departments have been reducing the amount of information they release to the public -- even as the government fields and answers more requests for information than ever, an Associated Press review has found."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Documents Privacy--Australia Source: Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia New Research Note: Do Australian's have a legal right to privacy? HTML version also available. -- Political Freedom--Middle East--Lists & Rankings Source: Economist Intelligence Unit Just Released, EIU Index of Political Freedom in the Middle East "A strikingly varied "democratic spectrum" has opened in the Middle East between countries with increasingly free political systems and those burdened with repressive regimes, according to a new Index of Political Freedom from the Economist Intelligence Unit." See Also: New EIU Report: The dynamics of democracy in the Middle East No charge for full text report. -- USA PATRIOT Act Source: U.S. Dept. of Justice Inspector General New, Report to Congress on Implementation of Section 1001 of the USA PATRIOT Act, March 2005 -- Diversity in the Workplace--United States Source: FCC New Web Resource: Diversity Resource Directory "[The] Diversity Resource Directory is intended to be a one-stop resource for industry executives, human resources personnel, and/or employees to go to for assistance in recruitment efforts, or in development of a program that will enhance development of a company's human capital." |
