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ResourceShelf |
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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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Archives 06/01/1990 - 06/30/1990 03/01/2001 - 03/31/2001 04/01/2001 - 04/30/2001 05/01/2001 - 05/31/2001 06/01/2001 - 06/30/2001 07/01/2001 - 07/31/2001 08/01/2001 - 08/31/2001 09/01/2001 - 09/30/2001 10/01/2001 - 10/31/2001 11/01/2001 - 11/30/2001 12/01/2001 - 12/31/2001 01/01/2002 - 01/31/2002 02/01/2002 - 02/28/2002 03/01/2002 - 03/31/2002 04/01/2002 - 04/30/2002 05/01/2002 - 05/31/2002 06/01/2002 - 06/30/2002 07/01/2002 - 07/31/2002 08/01/2002 - 08/31/2002 09/01/2002 - 09/30/2002 10/01/2002 - 10/31/2002 11/01/2002 - 11/30/2002 12/01/2002 - 12/31/2002 01/01/2003 - 01/31/2003 02/01/2003 - 02/28/2003 03/01/2003 - 03/31/2003 04/01/2003 - 04/30/2003 05/01/2003 - 05/31/2003 06/01/2003 - 06/30/2003 07/01/2003 - 07/31/2003 08/01/2003 - 08/31/2003 09/01/2003 - 09/30/2003 10/01/2003 - 10/31/2003 11/01/2003 - 11/30/2003 12/01/2003 - 12/31/2003 01/01/2004 - 01/31/2004 02/01/2004 - 02/29/2004 03/01/2004 - 03/31/2004 04/01/2004 - 04/30/2004 05/01/2004 - 05/31/2004 06/01/2004 - 06/30/2004 07/01/2004 - 07/31/2004 08/01/2004 - 08/31/2004 09/01/2004 - 09/30/2004 10/01/2004 - 10/31/2004 11/01/2004 - 11/30/2004 12/01/2004 - 12/31/2004 01/01/2005 - 01/31/2005 02/01/2005 - 02/28/2005 03/01/2005 - 03/31/2005 04/01/2005 - 04/30/2005 05/01/2005 - 05/31/2005 06/01/2005 - 06/30/2005 07/01/2005 - 07/31/2005 08/01/2005 - 08/31/2005 09/01/2005 - 09/30/2005 10/01/2005 - 10/31/2005 11/01/2005 - 11/30/2005 12/01/2005 - 12/31/2005 01/01/2006 - 01/31/2006 02/01/2006 - 02/28/2006 03/01/2006 - 03/31/2006 04/01/2006 - 04/30/2006 05/01/2006 - 05/31/2006 06/01/2006 - 06/30/2006 Now Available Additional Web Reference Compilations direct search (Invisible Web Resources) Audio/Video Current Awareness Tools WWW Accessible Congressional Research Service Reports
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Friday, March 31, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Academic Librarians Source: ACRL ACRL seeks applicants for Institute for Information Literacy Intentional Teacher Program "The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Institute for Information Literacy (IIL) seeks applicants for the newest addition to its Immersion program--The Intentional Teacher: Renewal through Informed Reflection. Acceptance to the program is competitive; participation is limited to 36 individuals per program. The deadline for application is May 5, 2006." -- Law Librarians Librarian Recruitment Source: AALL (via AALL's President Web Site) Law Librarians Listed From the post, "For the first time, law librarians are listed in Occupational Outlook, in the Grab Bag, a career information magazine aimed at high school and college students and counselors. (Occupational Outlook Quarterly, Spring 2006, Vol. 50, Number 1). This is a great new opportunity to spread the message about law librarianship as a career possibility to students at an early stage in their career preparation." See Also: Full Text of Article Also Available in PDF.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Iraq Source: Congressional Research Service (via FAS) Updated: Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) in Iraq: Effects and Countermeasures -- Cultural Awareness--Bibliography Source: Air University Library Cultural Awareness and the Military Includes Internet resources, books, documents, periodicals. -- Information Technology--Ranking Source: World Economic Forum Global Information Technology Report "Since it was first launched in 2001, the Global Information Technology Report has become a valuable and unique benchmarking tool to determine national ICT strengths and weaknesses, and to evaluate progress. It also highlights the continuing importance of ICT application and development for economic growth. The Report uses the Networked Readiness Index (NRI), covering a total of 115 economies in 2005-2006, to measure the degree of preparation of a nation or community to participate in and benefit from ICT developments." The NRI is composed of three component indexes which assess: the environment for ICT offered by a given country or community; the readiness of the community's key stakeholders - individuals, business and governments; and the usage of ICT among these stakeholders." Full report available for purchase. + Contents (PDF; 1pg; 29k) + Preface (PDF; 2pgs; 46k) + Summary (PDF; 5pgs; 66k) + Full Rankings (PDF; 24 KB) + Map of "Digital Inclusion" -- Military--United States--History Source: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress New, Army JAG Corps Historical Monographs "Official history of the Army JAG Corps and other studies of judge advocates."
Search Briefs AOL Podcasts from AOL's Mountain View Office Note: This is an XML page. Use your RSS aggregator to view it. Search and tech geeks here's a podcast that might be of interest. AOL's Mountain View facility (their HQ is in Dulles, VA, near the airport) is now podasting. Podcast #17 was released this week. Programs so far include an interview with IA guru Peter Morville, presentations from the SDForum Search SIG: The Search for Attention, and a discussion from SXSW about mobile technology and design. This show (#1) offers some background about the podcast. -- + YouTube and Its Future (via News.com) -- + Google Adds Continuous Playback to Google Video (via News.com)
Search Patent Update Microsoft Has Several Search and Ad Patent Applications Published, Also New App from Yahoo Three MS apps were published yesterday, March 30th. + Content evaluation Filed: September 30, 2004 Keeping spam out of search engines + System for partial automation of content review of network advertisements Filed: September 29, 2004 "Upon receiving a proposed network advertisement from an advertiser, a publisher determines whether to automatically approve the proposed advertisement for publishing, automatically reject the proposed advertisement from being published, or manually verify the content of the proposed advertisement prior to publishing based on a distribution channel of the proposed advertisement, a trust rating of the advertiser, a business rule, or expected traffic of a location at which the proposed advertisement is to appear." + System and method for generating an orchestrated advertising campaign Filed: September 28, 2004 From the abstract, "A system and related techniques host and serve selective, orchestrated advertising campaigns and other content to users depending on contributing advertisers' campaign strategies as well as use interests, prior history or experiences. According to embodiments, users may navigate to a Web or other network site which contains or invokes ads or other media or content." Patent App from Yahoo, Published March 16th. + Optimal storage and retrieval of XML data Filed: November 16, 2004 From the abstract, "Processing requirements are reduced, because parsing is not a required step when processing queries. Instead of parsing, the query is processed by unpacking the compressed version of the document identified in the query, node by node until enough information has been decoded to satisfy the query. Processing speed is improved in two ways. First, unpacking as carried out according to the invention is a much faster process than parsing. Second, the entire document need not be unpacked." Thursday, March 30, 2006
Resource of the Week By Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor Sometimes, poking around Federal Reserve Bank websites turns up some interesting and useful things. Like this week's resource, "an economics information portal" for librarians and students," via the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis. Economics--United States--Portal Source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Liber8 Here is a website by librarians for librarians. "Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis librarians designed this site with university and government document librarians, students, and the general public in mind. Economic information can, at times, be difficult for the non-economist to find and understand. We hope this site will provide a single point of access to the economic information that the Federal Reserve System, other government agencies, and data providers have to offer. We specifically selected non-technical sources that would be simpler to use and easier to understand." The clean, deceptively simple design of this site belies the wealth of content you can find here. Some items are local; other links will take you to information on external websites. On the home page, you'll see three major geographic sub-headings -- International, National and Regional. Under each heading, you'll see a couple of current reports (PDFs), with a "more" link to get to additional documents. In the middle of the page are links to the latest economic statistics, again under the three geographic headings, with "more" links to additional data. Scroll further down and find a collection of "useful links" -- to international, national and regional information, with "more" links to...more links. There is a true jewel nestled within this website -- the International Economic Statistics (IES) Database: "The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis Research Library's IES Database simplifies the search for world-wide economic indicators. Individual indicators (such as GDP and CPI) are linked, and each link has a description of the data. Included in each record is the title, corporate author, publisher, years covered in the data series, type of publication (text, table, chart), frequency with which the data is published, country of origin, a URL, available languages, subject headings, format (.pdf, .xls, etc.), a summary (where available), and any notes needed to clarify the data. The database is title, country, subject and keyword searchable. The links will be checked regularly to maintain accuracy. Indicators are continually being added." The search form allows you to input keywords and/or choose countries, corporate authors and specific subjects using dropdown menus. Other "don't miss" links: + AmosWEB GLOSS*arama: "...a searchable database of 2000 economic terms and concepts." + The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas's Center for Latin American Economics: "...focuses its research efforts on issues of particular concern in Latin America--not only in the core central bank areas of monetary, macroeconomic, foreign exchange, banking, and fiscal issues but also across a spectrum of applied and theoretical concerns." Many publications are available here, and the entire site is available en español. + Inflation Central, from the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland: "Track inflation in the United States and across the world and put it all in perspective with our analysis and commentary." + FRASER, the Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research: "On this web site you will find links to scanned images (in Adobe® Acrobat® PDF format) of historical economic statistical publications, releases, and documents." + FRED (Federal Reserve Economic Data): "a database of over 3000 U.S. economic time series. With FRED you can download data in Microsoft Excel and text formats and view charts of data series." + A page on the Bank for International Settlements (who knew?) website that provides links to central bank websites in countries from Albania to Zimbabwe. + An integrated multilingual dictionary of trade terms from the Foreign Trade Information System of the Organization of American States. + Fed in Print, from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco: "...a comprehensive index to Federal Reserve economic research." Oh, in case you're wondering how this site got its name: Liber8 is provided by the Research "Lib"rary of the "8"th Federal Reserve District. Bravo!
Professional Reading Shelf Metadata Source: PerX New Publication: The Power of Good Metadata Discussed in 'Marketing' with Metadata -- How Metadata Can Increase Exposure and Visibility of Online Content From a synopsis, "'Marketing' with Metadata - How Metadata Can Increase Exposure and Visibility of Online Content is aimed at content providers of various kinds -- for example, journal publishers, professional societies and database providers and owners -- who may have such data, or metadata, available for the content they produce." See Also: Metadata (via Digital Curation Centre) A chapter from the DCC Curation Manual. Excellent intro to metadata. See Also: Introduction to Metadata: Pathways to Digital Information (via Getty Research Institute) A full text book on the topic. -- Internet2--Statistics Source: Internet2 New Survey Shows Access and Usage of Internet2 in Schools, Public Libraries, and Elsewhere From the summary: K12 Schools + 35971 out of 98335 or 37% of the K12 Schools in the United States are connected to Internet2 via the SEGP Program. + 4350 out of 35971, or 12%, of K12 Schools connect to the Internet2 backbone network at >= 10 Mbps. + 17% of state education networks report between 50 - 100% of the K12 Schools they connect are multi-cast enabled. + State education networks report, on average, that 44% of the K12 Schools they connnect have H.323, DVTS, MPEG, or other video conferencing codecs available. Public Libraries + 3325 out of 16991 or 20% of the Public Libraries in the United States are connected to Internet2 via the SEGP Program. + 229 out of 3325, or 7%, of Public Libraries connect to the Internet2 backbone network at >= 10 Mbps. Totals "More than 46,000 K-12 schools, community colleges, libraries, and museums in 35 U.S. states are now connected to the Internet2 backbone network." Summary Direct to Full Text of Study See Also: Learn More About Internet2 "Internet2 is a consortium being led by 207 universities working in partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies, accelerating the creation of tomorrow's Internet." -- Weblogs Wikis Source: Intelligent Enterprise One Person's Opinion: Wikis, Blogs, and Other Points of Failure A column by Joshua Greenbaum. From the column, "I hate to be the one to throw cold water on the latest cool thing, but wikis and blogs -- and all the other unwashed, untethered, so-called "new information" sources proliferating across the enterprise -- are, all too often, just a lot of bunk masquerading as information...The integrity of all information -- corporate or private -- rests on the ability of users to judge the validity of the source. So heaven help us if no one calls the bloggers and wikites on the carpet when they mislead and misinform; degrading information on the Internet will globalize ignorance to an incredible degree. And the last thing anyone needs these days is more global stupidity. We have enough politicians contributing to that problem already." -- Vocabularies--Medical Source: NLM New Fact Sheets Provide Info About Unified Medical Language System + Unified Medical Language System "The purpose of NLM's Unified Medical Language System (UMLS) is to facilitate the development of computer systems that behave as if they "understand" the meaning of the language of biomedicine and health." + UMLS Metathesaurus "The Metathesaurus is a very large, multi-purpose, and multi-lingual vocabulary database that contains information about biomedical and health-related concepts, their various names, and the relationships among them." + UMLS Semantic Network "The Semantic Network consists of (1) a set of broad subject categories, or Semantic Types, that provide a consistent categorization of all concepts represented in the UMLS Metathesaurus and (2) a set of useful and important relationships, or Semantic Relations, that exist between Semantic Types."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Newspaper Archives Digitization Projects United States History Source: NewspaperARCHIVE.com Two New Archives of Historic Material (Free) from NewspaperARCHIVE.com Since January we've been chronicling a steady stream of FREE, full text, full image, searchable/browsable newspaper archives focused on a specific topic from NewspaperARCHIVE.com. The company is part of Heritage Microfilm based in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. This week the company has released two new archives each containing tens of thousands of newspaper articles from various newspapers. Each article is delivered as a pdf file ready for printing or saving. Kudos to Heritage for offering these databases and underlying content at no charge. Also a great way to see local newspaper coverage. What's New this Week? + FBI Newspaper Archive More than 50,000 full text articles about the FBI, criminals, etc. Love the timeline. -- + September 11th Archive More than 15,000 articles. Advanced interfaces are available for both databases. -- See Also: Links to More Archives from NewspaperARCHIVES.com Including: + MartinLutherKingJrArchive + Pro Baseball Archive + College Basketball Archive + Abraham Lincoln Archive + AsbestosArchive.com (Asbestos and Asbestos Related Lawsuits) + HMS Titanic Archive + Winter Games Archive -- Reference Shelf--Statistics Source: OECD Just Released, OECD Factbook 2006: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics "How does France compare with other EU countries in terms of growth in labour productivity? Where does Japan rank versus the other major developed countries in public spending on health? People and politicians want to know how their countries and regions are performing. The OECD's Factbook is designed to help them." Numbers in charts and graphs available in Excel format. Data, reorganised by country, also available. -- Digital Libraries--Science Resources for Educators Source: Exploratorium, San Francisco New, Exploratorium Digital Library Expect a closer look from ResourceShelf soon. From the site, "The different collections in the library include digital media and digitized museum materials related to interactive exhibits and scientific phenomena, including images, educational activities in PDF and html formats, QuickTime movies, streaming media, and audio files. You may search, select and download digital files for individual, noncommercial educational use."
Briefly + Convera and Factiva enter indexing deal (via IWR) + H.W. Wilson Introduces New Web Technical Support Center
Search Briefs + Ask.Com's New Look Scores Big Points Against Search Rivals (via Wall St. Journal) Walt Mossberg weighs in on what's up at Ask.com! See Also: Gary's New Job and A Look at What Ask.com Offers See Also: Gary's Interview about his New Role at Ask.com (via LJ) -- + Google Files With SEC To Offer More Shares of GOOG 5.3 million shares of Google Class A shares to be precise. That's about $2.1 billion based on tonight's closing price. What for? "This offering will partially meet the anticipated needs of index funds to purchase Google Class A common stock when Google is added to the S&P 500 Index at the close of trading on March 31, 2006. Proceeds from the offering will be used for general corporate purposes, including working capital and capital expenditures, and possible acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies or other assets...We have no current agreements or commitments with respect to any material acquisitions. Pending such uses, we plan to invest the net proceeds in highly liquid, investment grade securities." -- + Happy Birthday to Yahoo 360 The blogging/social networking/community platform celebrates its first birthday. -- + Microsoft to bring Hotmail onto the desktop (via News.com) Learn more via the Windows Live Mail Desktop Beta Blog -- + MSN Live Search Adds "Search Macros" (via SEW Blog) See Also: Rollyo Quickly and painlessly create your own site specific search engine. Uses Yahoo database. Wednesday, March 29, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Librarianship--Quotations Source: IFLA Quotations about Libraries and Librarians: Subject List An author index is also available. -- Health Information--United States Source: U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science NCLIS Announces Finalists for 2006 Health Information Awards (PDF) "The U.S. National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) today announced the ten finalists for the 2006 NCLIS Health Information Awards for Libraries. The awards are designed to encourage library programs that address one or more of the following: dietary choices; exercise; smoking cessation; alcohol and/or drug abuse prevention or cessation; immunizations and health screenings; and improved health literacy, that is, the ability to understand and make use of health information." See Also: NCLIS Announces 2006 Health Awards State Winners -- Inforation Technology Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project Teens and technology (PDF) A presentation given by PI&ALP Director, Lee Rainie, at the Public Library Association Conference last week. "This is a discussion of the eight realities of technology and social experience that are shaping the world of today's teens and twenty-somethings. It looks at the growing role of technology in teens' lives, the way they use their gadgets, their expectations about how to find and use information, and the social consequences of their use of technology."
Scholarly Publishing--Citation Reports Source: ISI + Science in Japan, 2001-05 + The 20 most-cited countries in Chemistry for 1995-August 31, 2005 + Journals Ranked by Impact: Business, Finance + Chemical Engineering: High-Impact U.S. Universities, 2000-04 + Canadian Universities: Highest Impact in Organic Chemistry/Polymer Science, 2000-04
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Information Technology--Forecasts Source: Computer Industry Almanac Smartphones to Outsell PDAs by 5:1 in 2006 "What a difference two years can make. In 2003 worldwide PDA sales surpassed Smartphone sales by over 70%. In 2005 Smartphones outsold PDAs by a factor of 3.4 to 1, which is forecasted to reach 5:1 in 2006. Smartphone sales will continue to grow and will surpass PDA sales by an 11:1 margin in 2011." -- Counties--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: TNS Financial Services TNS Study Names Top Ten Wealthiest U.S. Counties (PDF; 120 KB) "TNS Financial Services today released its list of the top ten wealthiest counties in the United States. The Affluent Market Research Program (AMRP), TNS annual survey of wealthy U.S. households, identifies the ten counties across America with the highest number of millionaire residents." -- Bankruptcies--United States--Statistics Source: US Courts Bankruptcy Filings Surge in Calendar Year 2005 Tables in xls are available. -- National Security--United States--Database Source: White House (via askSam) askSam Makes Searchable/Browsable Version of Recently Released National Security Strategy Available "Search and analyze the full text of The 2006 National Security Strategy of the United States. On March 16, 2006, the White House released President Bush's second term National Security Strategy (NSS), which reflects the president's most solemn obligation: to protect the security of the American people. The NSS explains how the United States government is working to protect the American people, advance American interests, enhance global security, and expand global liberty and prosperity. You can browse this databases online or download it to your PC." See Also: More Searchable/Browsable e-Books Databases from askSam -- Documents in the News Radioactive Materials Source: GAO Two New Reports from the GAO (via DocuTicker.com) + Border Security: Investigators Transported Radioactive Sources Across Our Nation's Borders at Two Locations + Border Security: Investigators Successfully Transported Radioactive Sources Across Our Nation's Borders at Selected Location -- Population--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Two New Reports The Black Alone or in Combination in the U.S.: 2004 and 2003 and The Asian Alone or in Combination in the U.S.: 2004 and 2003 -- National-level tabulations from the Current Population Survey for non-Hispanic Blacks and Asians by age and sex. Internet addresses: + The Black Alone or in Combination Population in the U.S.: 2004 and 2003 + The Asian Alone or in Combination Population in the U.S.: 2004 and 2003
Freebies Web 2.0 Source: PC World Just Released: 101 Fabulous Freebies All sorts of goodies in more than 10 categories. Also new on the web is the SEOmoz Web 2.0 Awards. Over 300 sites, tools and services listed. Kudos to Rand Fishkin for putting it all together.
Briefly + Alacra Store Unveils New Keyword Search One-stop shop search and purchase reports from over 35 business info publishers. Basic company snapshots are free. Advanced search interface also available. -- + New Edition Posted: Scirus News Update + Scirus index surpasses 250 million mark + New: Daily indexing to Repository Search partners + Grouping of results per source -- + CIPO improves searching capability of Canadian patent documents Tuesday, March 28, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf ERIC Education--Databases Source: ERIC New, ERIC Structured Abstract Initiative "ERIC is developing a structured abstract format for ERIC database records. Structured abstracts, pioneered by the scientific community, provide a template for the presentation of common research study elements such as background, purpose, research design, and conclusions. They provide readable, informative, and accurate summaries that enable users to quickly identify and evaluate research literature." Learn more about the SAI here. -- Council for Networked Information Source: CNI Project Briefings: A Preliminary List A look at the many projects that CNI is backing. Most listings have direct links to the actual project. Presentations about these projects will be made next week at the CNI spring 2006 Task Force Meetings. Lots of interesting material here. -- Copyright--United States--Fair Use--Congressional Testimony Source: Library Copyright Alliance The Role of Fair Use in Libraries and Education--Testimony from the Library Copyright Alliance -- Finding vs. Discovering Source: St. Petersburg Times The endangered joy of serendipity "Serendipity is defined as the ability to make fortunate discoveries accidentally.... Think about the library. Do people browse anymore? We have become such a directed people. We can target what we want, thanks to the Internet. Put a couple of key words into a search engine and you find -- with an irritating hit or miss here and there - exactly what you're looking for. It's efficient, but dull. You miss the time-consuming but enriching act of looking through shelves, of pulling down a book because the title or the binding interests you. Inside, the book might be a loser, a waste of the effort and calories it took to remove it from its place and then return. Or it might be a dark chest of wonders, a life-changing first step into another world, something to lead your life down a path you didn't know was there." -- Libraries--Databases Web Search Source: NY Times Searching for Dummies Unfortunately, the libary world has heard much of this before. Yet another look at the poor info retrieval skills. The question is what are we doing to change things? In 2002, this article from the Columbia Journalism Review (by an instructor at Harvard) said the same type of thing. A few comments: + From the article, "Google led in ranking sites by how often they are linked to other highly ranked sites." True but not entirely accurate. Google and all of the leading "general purpose" web engines look at more than just link analysis. Ask any search engine optimizer and they'll tell you that everything from term frequency, proximity, and many more metrics factor in to determine relevancy at Google and at other engines. Chris Sherman's book Google Power reports that Google (and other engines) look at more than 100 metrics/factors in determining relevancy. Linking is just one of them. + This article only talks Google. Why? What about other large general web engines including MSN, Yahoo, Exalead, and Ask? What ever happened to using the right tool at the right time? What services and features does one engine offer that the others don't? Often a library will have more than one reference book or database that covers the same content but offers features that the others don't. Also, even if the content was the exact same at each engine, each has a different formula (secret sauce if you prefer) to determine relevancy. Another reason why looking at results from more than one engine is important. + What about specialty search tools (for example ResearchIndex, SmealSearch (offline today), Topix.net, RedLightGreen, Scirus), The Wayback Machine? + What about the databases students/public have access to remotely for free? + What about the value of non-commercial directories like RDN, LII, IPL, and Infomine? Quality over quantity is the rule with these resources. + What about virtual reference services? + What about reference books? (yes, I said books, please be kind) + What I have learned over the past few years is that one reason many people/students/faculty don't use other tools is that no one has: + TOLD POTENTIAL USERS ABOUT THEM!!! + Shared their value proposition(s) (one of them time savings and another quality of info). + Share how they MIGHT produce more relevant, timely, and authoritative results. Of course, the entire info literacy issue transcends all of this. + We not only have a role as marketers (in the fee-based database world the vendors need to help) but also as trainers. This is why staying current on all tools (and how they work, what they do different) is so important. The right tool/source at the right time. + Easier said then done, absolutely! One good piece of news is that so many wonderful free or very inexpensive (have you see Newsplayer.com?) resources exist. NOTE: For those search "historians" out there, the original use of link analysis on the web was done by Jon Kleinberg and colleagues at IBM for CLEVER, an engine that was never publicly released. Much of what Clever did in terms of algorithm is now part of Teoma technology which powers Ask.com. See Also: Kleinberg's Home Page See Also: Clever Home Page See Also: Hypersearching the Web (Kleinberg Explains Clever vs. Others, 1999) See Also: How Teoma Works (Several Articles at the Bottom of this Post) NOTE 2: While it's 100% true that link analysis owes a lot to citation analysis and the work of Dr. Eugene Garfield, one major difference exists. Link analysis (on the open web) is much easier to game and manipulate. It's a constant challenge (a cat-and-mouse game) for both the search engines and those who want to move their pages to the top of the organic results. Traditional citation analysis is done by monitoring an "approved" list of sources. While self-citation is always an issue it is not nearly the issue that outside influences play on link analysis.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Country Profiles Source: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress Just Updated: United Arab Emirates 25 pages; PDF. -- Sleep Source: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute New Guide: Your Guide to Healthy Sleep 60 pages; PDF. Summary and more resources here. -- Small Business--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Fast Facts: Small Business Week 2006 SBW begins on April 9th. This new compilation offers a wide range of statistics. Stats include: + $830 billion Receipts for nonemployer businesses (those without paid employees) in 2003, up from $586 billion in 1997. These nonemployers, often "mom and pop" corner stores or home-based businesses, comprised more than 70 percent of all businesses. + 5.3 million Number of business establishments with fewer than 10 employees in 2003. Among these businesses, 3.9 million employed fewer than 5 people. + 1 million Number of nonemployer businesses added to the nation's total between 2002 and 2003. -- Business Research--Guides Source: Science, Technology and Business Division, Library of Congress Both print, electronic, and web-based resources are listed. + United States Money + The Sports Industry + Peter Drucker: A Tribute. Resources by and about Peter Drucker (1909 - 2005) + Financing Your Future: Selected Guides to Personal Financial Planning -- Higher Education--United States--Statistics Source: BLS College Enrollment and Work Activity of 2005 High School Graduates -- Internal Revenue Service--Audits--Statistics Source: TRAC (Syracuse University) Only 30 out of more than 180,000 Millionaires Faced Traditional IRS Audits Last Year "New data from the IRS reports that only 30 of the nation's 180,000 plus millionaires were subject to face-to-face audits in FY 2005. Analysis by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) also shows that when only traditional face-to-face audits are considered, those reporting less than $25,000 in total positive income were six times more likely to be audited than all those reporting $200,000 or more in income. IRS continues to withhold from TRAC statistical data it has made public in the past that might explain the aberration." (via DocuTicker.com) -- Phishing--Statistics Source: Anti-Phishing Working Group New, January Phishing Trends Report Available "No Relief from Phishing Onslaught of '05 Holidays, Password-Stealing Crimeware Hits New Record"
Information Visualization--Multimedia Presentations Source: University of Maryland Live Webcast This Wednesday: The Thrill of Discovery -- Accelerating Information Exploration Registration required: free. Speaker: Ben Shneiderman, Dept of Computer Science, Univ of Maryland Date: Wednesday, March 29, 2006 Time: 11:00 am, Eastern Standard Time 6:00 pm, Europe Daylight Time 8:00 am, Pacific Standard Time "Exceptional tools for information visualization are becoming more widely used to gain competitive advantages, but the best is yet to come. The next generation of interactive tools will enable communities of users to make successful business decisions even more rapidly. Advances to look for include: 1) systematic strategies for discovery that incorporate the increasingly powerful statistical tools and data mining methods, while accommodating missing and uncertain data. 2) increasingly diverse data types such as time series, patient histories, maps, and social networks, so users can handle a wider array of problems. 3) tighter integration into organizational workflows that amplify individual creativity with the catalytic benefits of social creativity." See Also: More Presentations About Info Visualization by Dr. Shneiderman. Wow!
Search Briefs + Wikipedia Blocks School's Editing Privileges Due to Vandalism (Andy Carvin's Blog) -- + Scopus Integrated Directly into Editors' and Reviewers' Workflow -- + Google experiments with map ads (via News.com) Note: This is not a new experiment. It was first reported in January 2006.) -- + Google's market lead widens (via News.com) "Company's U.S. search market share rises at the expense of Yahoo and Microsoft, while Ask.com inches up." Monday, March 27, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Archives Source: The International Council on Archives (ICA) The ICA Section for Archival Education and Training: Training the Trainer Resource Pack Now Online "The Training the Trainer resource pack is intended for anyone who wants some guidance or direction in planning, organising and delivering effective training for both professionals and support staff whatever their working or learning environment. The bulk of the pack addresses the various techniques for delivering training but it also covers the practical administrative tasks that are essential for successful training courses and which underpin the training content." The complete pack can be downloaded (Zip File). -- Privacy--United Kingdom Data Security--United Kingdom Source: ManagingInformation.com Two Thirds Of Businesses Fail On Data Protection And Privacy "A new survey among the UK's leading businesses -- all of the FTSE100 organisations 'reveals that around two thirds of them are failing to handle incoming telephone enquiries related to data protection and privacy,' despite their IT systems. The Marketing Improvement survey, entitled 'How FTSE100 Companies Handle Data Protection and Privacy Enquiries', suggests that while many of these organisations may have addressed the technical challenges presented by the requirements of data protection and freedom of information laws, they have failed the people and processes issues." The study is available here but does require registration. -- Access to Information Ordnance Survey--UK Source: The Guardian Ordnance Survey challenged to open up From the article, "The inventor of the world wide web has called for more open access to Ordnance Survey (OS) mapping data -- and may get his wish later this year. Sir Tim Berners-Lee told an Oxford University audience last week getting "basic, raw data from Ordnance Survey" online would help build the "semantic web," which he defines as a web of data using standard formats so that relevant data can be found and processed by computers. 'There's a moral argument that says, for a well-run country, we should know where we are, where things are, and that data should be available,' he said."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Iraq--Documents Source: NY Times Iraqi documents are put on Web, and search is on "American intelligence agencies and presidential commissions long ago concluded that Saddam Hussein had no unconventional weapons and no substantive ties to al-Qaida before the 2003 invasion. But now, an unusual experiment in public access is giving anyone with a computer a chance to play intelligence analyst and second-guess the government. Under pressure from Congressional Republicans, the director of national intelligence has begun a yearlong process of posting on the Web 48,000 boxes of Arabic-language Iraqi documents captured by American troops." Direct to Documents via Foreign Military Studies Office Joint Reserve Intelligence Center See Also: Recently Posted Documents See Also: Overview via Director of National Intelligence (DNI.gov) -- Health Source: MedlinePLUS New Topical Resource Compilations + Minerals + Arm Injuries and Disorders -- Higher Education--United States--Statistics Source: NSF Time to Degree of U.S. Research Doctorate Recipients "This InfoBrief looks at the relationship between doctorate field and average time-to-degree differences. Broad field of study differences in time to degree are first examined over a 25-year span, then differences across more detailed fields are described in terms of standard Carnegie classifications of doctorate-granting institutions for the 2002?03 academic year, hereafter referred to as 2003."
Search Briefs + InfoSpace Begins Beta of New Local Directory Search Service Quite the busy day in Seattle at the Infospace HQ. First, the new location-based search l deal with Sprint Nextel (see below) and also the launch (beta) of a new local directory service/interface. More here. Fast Facts about InfoSpace Beta ++ Residential and business listings ++ Interface consists of two search boxes ("Who or What" and Where) ++ Search by Neighboorhood Option (Example: Greenwhich Village; Country Club Plaza, MO; Lincoln Park Neighborhood, IL) ++ Search near Landmarks (Example: Independence Mall, PA) ++ More examples here ++ Refine by (Distance/Radius, Name, Business Category) ++ View Results on Map (Uses MSN MapPoint Technology) ++ "What's Nearby" Feature on Each Entry Page ++ Links to Send Entries Direct to Mobile Phone (Other Offer This Feature) and Get Driving Directions ++ Directory data from InfoUSA and Acxiom -- + Sprint to offer local search on phones (via Reuters) This fee-based service ($2.99) combines location-aware services (the phone knows where you are) to help you find theatres, restaurants, etc. It's powered by InfoSpace. "Initially Sprint and InfoSpace do not plan to charge businesses for being listed in the directory but such services are eventually expected to create advertising revenue." The Sprint/InfoSpace deal is non-exclusive. It also doesn't stop someone from using other mobile web directory services. Requires download. I do think the location-based technology coupled with local search is quite powerful. We will test the service asap. More in this news release. See Also: WiFi Location Finder + Local Info = Loki (Free)
Briefly + Standards: NISO Launches RFID Committee -- + See Also: UK: CILIP launches second RFID in Libraries Conference -- + Coming Very Soon: Biography Index: Past and Present -- + New EBSCOhost Features Now Available From RSS feeds to clustering. Sunday, March 26, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Tagging Social Search Social Networking Source: Newsweek Newsweek Cover Story Tackles Social Search, Tagging and Related Issues This time Newsweek tackles social search, tagging, and the rest. Flickr's Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield grace the cover. Services mentioned include the usual suspects and a couple of others: + Flickr + YouTube + MySpace + imeem + Dabble (This company hasn't even launched yet and the authors can't describe what it is; their pr person should get a raise.) + del.icio.us Here are a couple of brief comments (from Gary): + Someone needs to tell the writers of this story that tagging is not a taxonomy. Sorry to be a stickler. Tagging uses user-generated keywords while a taxonomy has structure (often hierarchical) and is often, but not always, well organized. I tried doing something like this about a year ago in response to another Newsweek article. I explained that cataloging, classification, controlled vocabularies tagging, etc., are not the same thing. Some might consider this to be minor stuff. Perhaps. However, large circulation weeklies should strive to be clear in describing a term that is often misunderstood and confused by the public. Why not explain the differences and the pros/cons of each type. -- + Being the tv/pop culture geek that I am I love YouTube. However, this article makes no mention of the potential copyright issues it and similar web video hosting servives could face. As more video content producers begin selling content, will people pay if it's available on YouTube for free? Will someone pay $1.99 for an episode of Lost on iTunes when someone has posted it on YouTube? Btw, this is a topic that Newsweek itself discussed in a recent article. I'll add that searching for material on YouTube can be a big challenge. Why? Tags and poor metadata. Some add lots of tags (hopefully I call something the same thing the person who tagged the item calls it) and complete video descriptions. Others entries contain very, very little. As the database grows larger this will make more false drops and time wasting likely. Librarians also know that the quality of cataloging (aka metadata description) can vary from cataloger to cataloger but there are some conventions that one must or should follow. Note to libraries: OCLC does have a guide to cataloging web resources. I don't think this is a new document but perhaps it's time to update it. Perhaps some of the concepts (not precise rules) could be applied to other services? -- + Yes, tagging can be very powerful and useful for very individual or small focused groups like an eight grade class or a group of friends or co-workers. To be useful to the masses (if/when) it reaches mainstream/widespread is another matter. Is the point of tagging to make information retrieval more precise for a large group of users? Why? Synonyms, pluralization, etc. Also, spam and gaming the system. This is another topic NOT addressed in the article. What would stop someone reviewing the most popular tags and then including these tags in every item they post? I'm sure with several logins and a script this could be achieved quite easily. We all know what happened to the meta-keyword content tag. Aside from spamming, for tagging to save effort and make retrieval more precise, something I've called structured or fielded tagging (location field, author field, date field, etc.) is needed. The Catch-22 is that most people wouldn't do it. Others would say that in some cases on the open web, a document or other item should speak for itself and let technology like dynamic clustering, audio transcription, content-based image retrieval, etc., do the work for the masses. Again -- on a personal or small group level -- it's another matter. The same might also be true when it comes to small specialty or vertical databases. Librarians know that everyone isn't a cataloger. Btw, standardization amongst tags and tagging services is needed. -- + We read about del.icio.us and its acquisition by Yahoo in December. However, we don't learn why Yahoo made the purchase when the've been developing (human resources, $$$) their own tagging/social search technology, MyWeb 2.0. I was also surprised not to see anything about Yahoo's home-built blogging, social networking service, etc., Yahoo 360. -- + Tagging issues. Look at the most popular tags. They are blog blogging blogs. What's the difference between each one? Tech and technology are two more popular tags. Again, what's the difference? You get the idea. For personal use, no worries but to improve access to the database for all? I realize that life moves slowly but we still see (after a couple of years) that most of the popular tags are technology related? Will tagging become more "mainstream" and when we will see non tech topics dominate the most popular tag list? It's much the same at My Web 2.0. Again, everyone isn't a cataloger. In an age when people want more time, tagging can be time consuming. Are topical or discipline-oriented tagging sites the wave of the future like Connotea? Would the vocauarly be easier to control? -- + We read little about why Google has not embraced social stuff (with a few exceptions) to this point. Yes, they purchased dodgeball (a mobile dating/meetup service, though it's hard to find out about it on any official Google web page) and have Orkut, a social networking service that hardly gets any attention these days (at least in the US). What happened? Why isn't Google doing more in this space? Why hasn't Orkut been more successful? You would think that with Google and the Google brand behind Orkut it would be more popular. Why not? No mention in the article. However, we do read a quote that once again will keep people (including the stock market) guessing (something Google is so so good at that also keeps the buzz buzzing) by Eric Schmidt. Google CEO Eric Schmidt says that he doesn't understand why people think his company wants to be the next Microsoft. "Everybody thinks we're building operating systems, PCs, and browsers. They clearly don't get it," he says. So where does Google want to go? "Look at MySpace," he says cryptically. Very interesting. -- -- Internet Online News Source: Pew Internet & American Life Online News: For many home broadband users, the internet is a primary news source "By the end of 2005, 50 million Americans got news online on a typical day, a sizable increase since 2002. Much of that growth has been fueled by the rise in home broadband connections over the last four years. For a group of 'high-powered' online users -- early adopters of home broadband who are the heaviest internet users -- the internet is their primary news source on the average day." Direct to full text report. (via DocuTicker.com)
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Science--Solar Eclipse--Webcast Source: Exploratorium Live Web Coverage/Webcast (March 29, 2006) of Total Solar Eclipse "On March 29th, a total solar eclipse will darken parts of the North Atlantic, Africa, and Southern Asia. But you don't have to go any further than the Exploratorium to experience this spectacular event: we're presenting a whole evening of entertainment, including a LIVE webcast from Side, Turkey." -- Biometrics Source: U.S. Department of Defense: Biometrics Management Office Biometrics 101 "This tutorial provides a high-level overview of biometric technologies, and is offered courtesy of the National Defense University, Fort McNair, Washington, DC." Modules include Definition, Why Use Biometrics, Types of Biometrics, Basic Terms, A Little Science, Cultural & Social Issues. See also: Biometrics Glossary
Conferences Podcasting Vlogging Personal Broadcasting Source: The New Media Consortium (NMC) Coming in April: NMC Online Conference on Personal Broadcasting April 26-27, 2006 -- via the Internet (Fee-Based) "The conference features 45-minute live breakout sessions conducted in an interactive online format, each with a "live/interactive" component, a "presentation-on-demand" component, and a vibrant threaded discussion that will expand on and illuminate the topic." Interedested in presenting? You can submit proposals through April 3rd. Saturday, March 25, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Current Awareness Source: BNA Current Awareness Resources: BNA's Web Watch Free. A periodic review of online resources prepared by the BNA Library's Laura Gordon-Murnane (and ResourceShelf and DocuTicker contributor). Here you will find links to government, industry, and academic resources on selected topics spanning the breadth of BNA coverage. New subjects will be posted weekly, and new resources will also be added to existing topics." -- WebJunction E-Learning Advisory Committee named (via OCLC)
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Iraq Source: U.S. Joint Forces Command, Center for Operational Analysis Command releases JCOA-produced Iraqi perspectives report "Can history be wrong? Not exactly, but history can be distorted if data is provided by only one side's perspective. U.S. Joint Forces Command has released an unclassified historical report of military operations conducted in Iraq. The twist is that this historical report reflects the Iraqi civilian and military leadership's perspective of events." + Iraqi Perspectives Project: A View of Operation Iraqi Freedom from Saddam's Senior Leadership (PDF: 7.2 MB) + Media Roundtable on the Iraqi Perspective Project -- Transcript -- Education--United States--Surveys School Libraries--United States--Surveys Source: NCES Just Released, Characteristics of Schools, Districts, Teachers, Principals, and School Libraries in the United States: 2003-04 Schools and Staffing Survey "The Schools and Staffing Survey (SASS) is the nation's most extensive sample survey of elementary and secondary schools and the teachers and administrators who staff them. This report introduces the data from the fifth administration (2003-04) of SASS. It is intended to give the reader an overview of the SASS data for the school year 2003-04 through tables of estimates for public, private, and BIA-funded schools and their staff." Direct to Full Text (PDF; 1.12 MB) Friday, March 24, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Libraries--United States--Funding Source: IMLS Institute of Museum and Library Services Awards Over $160 Million to State Libraries "Anne-Imelda Radice, Ph.D., Director of the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS), announced grants totaling more than $163 million to states for library service. 'This funding helps libraries meet the changing needs of their communities,' said Dr. Radice. A recent national study from the American Library Association (ALA) underscores this assertion -- 92% of Americans surveyed believe libraries will still be needed in the future, even with all of the information available on the Internet." See Also: Direct to IMLS Awarded Grants Database -- Sensitive Information--Australia Access to Information--Australia Source: Parliamentary Library, Parliament of Australia New Research Brief, Spy versus spy: Government control of sensitive information 16 pages; PDF.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text U.S. Department of State--Databases Foreign Policy--United States Source: NARA National Archives Makes Portions of U.S. State Department's Central Foreign Policy Files (1973-1974) Available Online "For the first time, the National Archives and Records Administration has made available online more than 400,000 State Department telegrams and other records for 1973 and 1974. These digital records from the Department of State's Central Foreign Policy Files are publicly accessible at the National Archives website at www.archives.gov/aad." -- Aging--United States--Surveys Source: AARP/USC New, Images of Aging in America 2004 "The facts and fallacies of growing old are scrutinized in this AARP/University of Southern California study of how much adult Americans know - or think they know - about aging. While the people surveyed are moderately knowledgeable, the study found that many still have misconceptions about aging and older people." Direct to Full Text (198 pages; PDF) -- Pollution--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: Forbes America's Most Polluted Cities Also includes list of most polluted cities in China and the world. -- Roads--United States Bridges--United States Source: Federal Highway Administration Recently Released, Status of the Nation's Highways, Bridges, and Transit: 2004 Conditions and Performance
Briefly IceRocket Investor, HDNET President, Theatre Chain Owner (and More) Mark Cuban, Will Be Interviewed on C-SPAN Sunday Night Cuban, who always has something to say, sits down for a one-on-one one-hour interview on Sunday night (8pm/11pm ET). Live stream available here. Archived video and text transcript should be available here. Podcast, too!
Cool Tools + WiFi Location Finder + Local Info = Loki (via Boston Globe) Worth a look and possible download. "A Boston company is giving away software that can turn nearly any laptop computer into a global positioning system, enabling users to find the nearest restaurant, hospital, or gas station at the touch of a button." Direct to software download from Loki. Thanks to A.S. at APB for the news tip. See Also: Microsoft Live Local Also is Testing a Wi-Fi Based Location Finder Thursday, March 23, 2006
Resource of the Week ----------------------------- By Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor You probably don't want to know how many reports, weblogs, newsletters, etc., I look at on a daily basis. Sometimes, I can't quite keep up and I end up deleting stuff without reading it. The newsletter that I never, ever delete unread -- because I'm afraid of missing something vital -- is this week's resource. Government Secrecy Source: Federation of American Scientists Project on Government Secrecy Secrecy News First, a little background on the Federation of American Scientists (FAS). This venerable non-profit organization is 60 years old. It was founded in 1945 by atomic scientists from the Manhattan Project "...who felt that scientists, engineers and other innovators had an ethical obligation to bring their knowledge and experience to bear on critical national decisions, especially pertaining to the technology they unleashed...." Some 66 Nobel laureates sit on its Board of Sponsors. The Federation undertakes a wide range of research and education projects "in nuclear arms control and global security; conventional arms transfers; proliferation of weapons of mass destruction; information technology for human health; and government information policy," and has lately turned its attention to "our country's critical challenges in housing, energy, and education," including a Housing Technology Project. The breadth and depth of the defense information available here is just awesome. Want to learn about "missiles, bombs, and mines used by the US military"? How about foreign weapons systems? Browse through the "selection of official and unofficial resources on intelligence policy, structure, and operations." Keep an eye on the global arms trade. Then there's the FAS Project on Government Secrecy, which "works to challenge unwarranted secrecy and to promote reform of national security information policy and practice." It maintains an extensive library of documents related to government secrecy, from all branches of the government, governmental agencies, and other organizations. Worth your time: Bush Administration Documents on Secrecy Policy. Secrecy News is the "flagship" publication of the FAS Project on Government Secrecy. It tracks what's new in secrecy/security/intelligence policy and provides links to new items on the website, including notoriously hard-to-access Congressional Research Service reports. Published two or three times a week, it is available via e-mail subscription or you can read it via weblog or rss. An archive of past issues is available back to September 2000. Although the archive is not directly searchable, the entire FAS website is. Secrecy News is edited by the tireless Steven Aftergood, friend of ResourceShelf and DocuTicker, and director of the FAS Project on Government Secrecy. Read a recent U.S. News and World Report interview with Aftergood for some insight into the current state of government secrecy in the U.S. -- Two bonus resources for you this week: + Gary talks to Library Journal about his new gig with Ask.com. + Shirl promotes her book (and motorcycle safety) on Tampa Bay's 10, the local CBS affiliate.
Professional Reading Shelf Encyclopedias Source: Ask the Researcher (via MySA.com) Encyclopaedia Britannica strikes back... Julie Domel, a news librarian at the San Antonio Express-News, reports on a letter (and shares some great comments) that was sent to educators about the recent study in Nature regarding EB's's science coverage as compared to Wikipedia. EB says in the letter the research was invalid and goes on to explain their side. The actual letter (PDF) is available here. Great work Julie and thanks for sharing! See Also: Nature mag cooked Wikipedia study (via The Register) See Also: Internet encyclopaedias go head to head (via Nature, 12/05) See Also: Wikipedia Pretty Accurate (via ABC News, 12/05) -- Learning Source: JISC New, Designing Spaces for Effective Learning "The focus is on the way technologies can transform space utilisation, as well as merely being 'fitted into' the design. Taking the approach of a walkthrough in an imaginary educational institution, the guide highlights current thinking about the use of learning technologies in key areas and their impact on these physical spaces. Richly illustrated, it also offers architect's prototype designs and concludes with a checklist of key points to help senior managers embarking on new build and refurbishment projects." 36 pages; PDF. -- Preservation--Audio Source: CLIR, National Recording Preservation Board, Library of Congress New, Capturing Analog Sound for Digital Preservation: Report of a Roundtable Discussion of Best Practices for Transferring Analog Discs and Tapes "This report investigates procedures to reformat sound on analog carriers to digital media or files. It summarizes discussions and recommendations emerging from a meeting of leading audio preservation engineers held January 29?30, 2004, to assess the present state of standards and best practices for capturing sound from analog discs and tapes." Direct to Full Text (43 pages; PDF). -- Library of Congress Source: ARL, ALA, CLIR, and NHA Joint Letter in Support of Library of Congress FY 2007 Budget Request PDF. -- Libraries and Librarians Source: UKOLN A New Issue of Focus on UKOLN is Now Online Read about a variety of events and projects including the Immortal Information Project.
Search Briefs + Yahoo Launches US VoIP Services (via BetaNews.com) Learn more direct from Yahoo. -- + A Deeper Look At Personalized News Search Engines (via SEW Blog) -- + Share Google Reader Feeds (via Google Blogoscoped) -- + LookSmart's Zeal Directory To Close (via SEW Blog) Yet another reason why non-commerical directories like LII, IPL, Infomine, and RDN are so important. -- + ProQuest Launches Central American Archives
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Lookup Databases--United States Source: Melissa Data Street Names Lookup Quickly access a list of streets and address ranges for any U.S. Zip Code. Then, clickand see imagery and maps of the location using Google, MSN, and Yahoo mapping products. The service is free. More lookup databases (free) from Melissa Data. -- Health--United States--Databases Source: NLM TOXMAP Adds New Chemical and Health Data "In response to feedback from users, the National Library of Medicine (NLM) has added new chemical and health-related data to its interactive mapping site, TOXMAP...Now, users can also use TOXMAP to find information about Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund sites and substances. The Superfund program is part of a federal government effort to clean up land in the United States that has been contaminated by hazardous waste and identified by the EPA as a candidate for cleanup because it poses a risk to human health and/or to the environment...TOXMAP has also added mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI), as well as age and gender data from the US Census, and income data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis." Direct to Toxmap Database. -- International Business--Costs--Lists & Ranking Source: KPMG Competitive Alternatives: KPMG's guide to international business costs "Competitive Alternatives represents KPMG's guide for comparing business costs in North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. The 2006 study is the most thorough comparison of international business costs ever undertaken by KPMG, and contains valuable information for any company seeking cost advantage in locating their international business operations. The study is an expansion and update of previous KPMG publications, and measures the combined impact of 27 significant business cost components that are most likely to vary by location. The study covers 17 industry operations in nine industrialized countries: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Singapore, the United Kingdom, and the United States." (via DocuTicker) -- Labor--United States--Statistics Source: BLS Women in the Labor Force in 2005 Updated fact sheet compiling data from several sources. Thanks to Stuart B. (a new ResourceShelf contributing editor) for the news tip. -- Country Profiles Source: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress New Profile, Algeria 22 pages; PDF.
Briefly + Milestones: GlobalSpec's SpecSearch Eclipses 100 Million Searchable Specifications Direct to GlobalSpec. -- + Thomson Scientific Wins Major U.S. Patent And Trademark Office Contract Examiners will continue to have access to Derwent World Patents Index. Wednesday, March 22, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Government Libraries--United States Source: FCW EPA to close library Bad news. "Proposed cuts in the fiscal 2007 budget have prompted Environmental Protection Agency officials to shutter the agency's Midwest Regional Library in anticipation of congressional approval of the budget. According to an internal e-mail released by Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), the EPA is preparing to close the Chicago library to preempt the passage of President Bush's proposed 80 percent funding cut to the EPA library network." See Also: Full Text of Internal Memo (via PEER) -- Digital Libraries Source: The Journal of Academic Librarianship (via E-LIS) Full Text, An Evaluation of Faculty Use of the Digital Library at Ankara University, Turkey (2006) "New consortial buying models have dramatically increased the availability of online resources, particularly journal articles, in the universities and technical institutes of developing countries. The degree of acceptance and pattern of use of such materials is of great interest to library collection development. Ankara University surveyed faculty members regarding their awareness and use of these electronic materials." -- Library Disaster Prevention Source: IWR National Research Reserve lays disaster fears to rest "The concerns of Oxbridge university librarians about the risk of losing information forever to a fire or natural disaster have been allayed after the British Library (BL) and the Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL) confirmed that their proposed National Research Reserve (NRR) would stock more than a single copy of journals." -- Access to Information--United States Source: FCW DOD removes missile defense system report from Web site "The Defense Department has removed from the DOD inspector general's Web site a critical report that states that the network that links radar systems, missile sites, and command centers for the Missile Defense Agency's (MDA) ground-based defense system has serious flaws in the security technologies, policies, and procedures needed to protect the integrity, availability, and confidentiality of information on the network." A copy of the report is still available via Federal Computer Week. -- Information--Standards Source: National Information Standards Organization The March Issue of the NISO Newsline is Online Reports include: + "Versions of Journal Articles Working Group Featured on NISO Website" + "Your Input Needed on Educational Programs" -- ResourceShelf Librarians Source: WTSP Our Own Shirl Kennedy Profiled Super Cool! It's been a busy two days for the ResourceShelf team in the press. On Monday, Gary was interviewed by LJ. Yesterday, Deputy Editor Shirl "Librarian by day, biker by night" is profiled by a Florida TV station! Video too! Congrats, Shirl!
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Airline Industry Source: SITA New Report, Mishandled baggage costing $2.5 billion as air travel passenger numbers soar to two billion says SITA "SITA, the IT provider which tracks baggage information for airlines and passengers in 220 countries and territories, today said the air transport industry is losing in the region of $2.5 billion annually because of misconnects and mishandled baggage. SITA also revealed for the first time that the number of bags lost or stolen is running at about 204,000 per annum on current calculations that 30 million bags are mishandled annually based on passenger numbers of two billion." Direct to Full Text Report (16 pages; PDF). (via DocuTicker.com) -- Education--United States Source: Education Week New Report, Special Report: Executive Agendas "This Education Week special report offers a detailed look at the leadership of governors in shaping their states' education agendas through legislation, regulatory action, public involvement, and proposal or endorsement of ballot measures." Direct to Full Text (PDF) Interactive Data Map -- Business--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census Just Released, Growth of Hispanic-Owned Businesses Triples the National Average "The number of Hispanic-owned businesses grew 31 percent between 1997 and 2002 -- three times the national average for all businesses -- according to a new report, Survey of Business Owners: Hispanic-Owned Firms: 2002 [PDF], released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. The nearly 1.6 million Hispanic-owned businesses generated nearly $222 billion in revenue, up 19 percent from 1997." Summary/Fast Facts Direct to Full Text (631 pages; PDF) -- Congressional Research Service Source: CRS via Open CRS, FAS, FPC A Selection of New or Recently Updated Reports + Fatah and Hamas: The New Palestinian Factional Reality + Fuel Ethanol: Background and Public Policy Issues + Lobbying and Related Reform Proposals: Consideration of Selected Measures, 109th Congress + Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses + The Middle East Peace Talks + Internet Development and Information Control in the People's Republic of China + Homeland Security: Protecting Airliners from Terrorist Missiles -- Federal Courts--United States--Statistics Source: Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts on behalf of the U.S. Courts. Complaints Against Judges Declined in FY 2005 These tables have stats and more info. 1 2 -- United States Statutes Source: GPO New, Statutes at Large now available on GPO Access "The United States Statutes at Large (Volume 117, 108th Congress) is now available online from the U.S. Government Printing Office, with future volumes to follow as they become available. The Statutes at Large is the permanent collection of all laws and resolutions enacted during each session of Congress. Documents are available as ASCII text and Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files."
Briefly + FAST and SirsiDynix partner to enhance search and research solutions for thousands of libraries + ProQuest launches British Periodicals, containing landmark British texts from across four centuries (via ManagingInformation.com)
Briefly + Father of Wiki Speaks on Development (via eWeek) -- + Bill Gates Talks Web 2.0 (via News.com) Bill Gates talks Google (we have a lot to contribute in search), web-based word processors and the Google "office" and much more. Btw, if you haven't tried Zoho Writer (another web-based word processor (free)), you should. Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries Source: Denver Public Library, OverDrive Downloadable Video Comes to Denver Public Library Beginning tomorrow (March 21st) the Denver Public Library will be the first library in the US to offer downloadable video for library card holders. Powered by OverDrive. From the announcement, "Films available include Academy Award nominated IMAX Movie 'The Living Sea' narrated by Meryl Streep featuring songs and music by Sting; Federico Fellini's Academy Award winner '8 ½' starring Marcello Mastroianni; travelogue 'Yellowstone National Park'; self-help titles including 'Meditation for Beginners'; and cult-classics such as the surfing film 'The Endless Summer' are just a few of the titles available. The service launches today on this site. See Also: Learn More About OverDrive Video (PDF) -- Librarians Libraries as a Business Source: ResearchInformation Library science meets business "Everyone knows the price of information, but its value is a bit harder to quantify. One of the reasons that the information industry continues to grow is that Michael Koenig put his considerable mind to this problem. He was one of the first academics to talk about the return on investment in information services rather than just what these services allow you to do. In this respect he can be thought of as the missing link between the academic world of library science and the business world. He has had a career that spa |
