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Resources and News for Information Professionals
ResourceShelf is Compiled & Edited By Gary Price, MLIS Librarian Director of Online Information Resources, Ask.com Editor and Compiler, The ResourceShelf Editor and Compiler, DocuTicker
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Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Technology Information Federated Search Metasearch Source: Heriot-Watt University More Cross-Database Searching: Say Hello to TechExtra!!! More impressive information retrieval tools keep flowing out of the UK. Last month on ResourceShelf we mentioned a new service from the UK's Perx Project. What we posted about was a "pilot service [at] http://www.engineering.ac.uk [that provides] subject resource discovery across a variety of digital repositories of interest to the engineering learning and research communities." Today, yet another new powerful search resource from the UK. Be prepared to spend some time with this one. It's called, TechXtra and focuses on information about technology. A mighty impressive undertaking but it's what we've come to expect from ResourceShelf friend and inspiration, Roddy MacLeod. In some ways its description sounds similar to what we've been reading from MS Academic Live and Google Scholar. From the announcement, "TechXtra facilitates immediate access to the freely available full-text content of hundreds of thousands of eprints, technical reports, theses, articles, news items, job announcements and more. In cases where the full-text is not freely available, TechXtra provides links to vendors for pay-per-view options." What does TechExtra offer: + Cross database searching (aka federated or metasearch) of 25 databases (over 4,000,000 records at the moment). From the news release "Sources include: Australian Research Repositories Online to the World, arXive (eprint archive in computer science, maths and related subjects), CiteSeer (research articles in computer science), Directory of Open Access Journals, ePrints UK (selected open archives in the UK), Copac (union catalogue from the Consortium of University Research Libraries), National Engineering Education Delivery System (digital library of learning resources), NASA Technical Reports (12 different NASA technical report series)... plus 18 other databases. More will be added in the near future." + Job Announcements + Industry News + Discovery Guides Free in-depth reports on topical engineering, mathematical, and technology issues from CSA. + Recent Advances in Manufacturing A database of bibliographic information for manufacturing and related areas, covering items in over 500 niche and mainstream journals and magazines, plus details of books, videos, and conference proceedings TechXtra harvests data from external sources using standard protocols such as Z39.50 and OAI-PMH and comes from the same team that has built and maintains the wonderful EEVL gateway. In a word, wow! Keep up the good work. We will take a closer look at both TechExtra and the engineering pilot project in coming weeks. -- Digital Archives Source: LC Webcast: Portico: A New Electronic Archiving Service "Eileen Fenton of the nonprofit electronic archiving service Portico discussed the social and technical challenges concerning the archiving of electronic journals and other scholarly resources." This webcast was recorded on May 10, 2006. See Also: Learn More About Portico -- CISTI Source: Library and Archives Canada CISTI signs Memorandum of Understanding with Library and Archives Canada to ensure business continuity for Csi "The Canada Institute for Scientific and Technical Information (CISTI) and Library and Archives Canada (LAC) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a facility that will ensure business continuity for CISTI's Canada's scientific infostructure (Csi) in the event of a partial or complete interruption of on-line services." -- Digital Information Source: National Library of Australia New Paper: Copyright in the Digital Age A paper presented by Paul Hetherington on Wednesday, 17 May 2006, National Library of Australia at the "Copyright in the Digital Age: Challenges and Opportunities for Offering Creative Work in the Digital Environment" seminar.
Web Search--Yahoo Yahoo Launches Revamped Video Search Site Set to go at midnight on Thursday (however the new site is now live) Yahoo has launched a revamped video search site. Until now, Yahoo Video offered (and still does) video content from partners (iFilm for example) as well as video its crawler finds on the open web. Overall, lots of new stuff for Yahoo but not much that we haven't seen elsewhere from other players. What's New/Different + Yahoo will now host and stream your video for free (ala Google Video and YouTube) via Yahoo Studio. Yahoo will host videos (wmv, flv, asf, qt, mov, mpg, or avi) up to 100MB in size. You can add a description/transcript, keywords (you choose) and place the video in up to six categories. + If the video is not hosted by Yahoo, Yahoo Video links you to the site. In other words, the content remains on a non-Yahoo server. If it's video from another Yahoo site (like music or sports) you're taken to that site to view. + Results pages include a static image from the video. + Featured videos are linked on the Yahoo Video Home Page. A daily archive is also available. + Sort "top picks" found on the home page by popularity, categories, or tags (right now the most popular tag is "fun." Not sure how useful that tag will be. :-) + Results pages offer a bit more metadata (duration, source, etc.). The rest of the metadata (directly next to the clip) was of little value when I ran several searches. That's not an issue for Yahoo but for the content producer. + User reviews and tags + Bookmark and share videos with friends (similar to what you can do with Yahoo 360). + Advanced search interface has not changed either in look or services. + Without the Safe Search active, lots of adult material. + Search results pages also contain "channels" which are series of videos from the same source or users that you can subscribe to. + Surprises? No way (at least I couldn't find it) to browse videos by content partners. However, a search for CBS turns up several CBS "channels." I also noticed a couple of IFilm channels. Also, I did not spot any mention of MediaRSS on either the site or the Yahoo Video help pages. + The Yahoo Video team has a blog. You'll find it here on Yahoo 360. + Some results pages also contain Yahoo Shortcuts. For example, here you'll see a shortcut for David Letterman via Yahoo TV. Update: While the web hosting, tagging, and sharing services will be of value to many users, when it comes to pure video search, we're still sticking with SearchforVideo.com. Update 2: Some good news. Yahoo's arrangement with Bloomberg Business News (via TVEyes.com) is still available. You can still keyword search words spoken on BBN and then watch the video clip on Yahoo. To limit your search to Bloomberg content, use the search <site:tveyes.com foo>.
Congressional Research Service Source: CRS via OpenCRS, FAS, NCSE, FPC, US Embassy in Rome A Selection of New/Updated CRS Reports + Broadband over Powerlines: Regulatory and Policy Issues + Digital Television: An Overview + Iraq: U.S. Military Operations + Civilian Patrols Along the Border: Legal and Policy Issues + Terminal Operators and Their Role in U.S. Port and Maritime Security + Border Security and Military Support: Legal Authorizations and Restrictions + Retirement Savings and Household Wealth: A Summary of Recent Data + Wilderness Laws:Permitted and Prohibited Uses + Caspian Oil and Gas: Production and Prospects + Avian Influenza: Multiple Strains Cause Different Effects Worldwide + Space Exploration: Issues Concerning the "Vision for Space Exploration" + Energy: Useful Facts and Numbers + Afghanistan: Elections, Constitution, and Government
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Earthquakes--Indonesia--Maps Source: Source: United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs--ReliefWeb New: Indonesia: Earthquake - Situation map No. 4 See Also: Indonesia: Earthquake OCHA Situation Report No. 4 -- Country Profiles Source: Federal Research Division, Library of Congress New or Updated Reports Updated: Afghanistan 22 pages: PDF. & New: Yemen 23 pages; PDF. -- Internet Access--United Kingdom Source: NSO Internet Access: 63% of adults access the Internet "The most common place to access the Internet was at home (86 per cent), 46 per cent accessed at work, 28 per cent at another person's home, 16 per cent at a place of education, and 10 per cent at a public library." Includes chart. -- Bankruptcies--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Courts Bankruptcy Filings Rose in March 2006 12-Month Period Quarterly Filings Lowest Since Mid-80s "The number of bankruptcy cases filed in federal courts rose 12.8 percent in the 12-month period ending March 31, 2006, according to statistics released today by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Bankruptcy cases totaled 1,794,795 for that period, compared to 1,590,975 bankruptcy cases filed in the 12-month period ending March 2005." Four spreadsheets with stats are available. -- Legal System--United States--Statistics Source: Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, Syracuse University New, Federal Prosecution Counts "Monthly information for January of 2006 about the federal prosecution counts for white collar crime and three other major crime categories -- immigration, drugs, and weapons -- are now available to all Americans by going to a special new feature on TRAC's public site at http://trac.syr.edu/tracreports/bulletins/.
Briefly Cambridge University Press Offers Free Trials of New Databases 1) Coming Soon: Online Version of the Historical Statistics of the United States: Millennial Edition For a free trial, email: hsus@cambridge.org. 2) Literature and Classics Companions and Philosophy, Religion and Culture Companions Collections For a free trial, email: mailto:ccol@cambridge.org. 3) Coming Soon New Database: The Orlando History of Women's Writing in the British Isles, from the Beginnings to the Present. "Material relating to women's writing in the British Isles, including biographical and critical information on over 800 British women writers plus over 20,000 bibliographical listings. Data may be searched by author, place, and date, but also by genre, topic, or theme." For a free trial, email: tbraunstein@cambridge.org If you register for a free trial, you'll receive a complimentary copy of the Cambridge Guide to Women's Writing in English. Btw, make sure to tell Cambridge that ResourceShelf sent you. :-) -- + Rand McNally Maps Coming to Motorola Cell Phones -- + Who Makes What: Mobile Infrastructure "Welcome to Unstrung's Who Makes What report on wireless infrastructure. As with our Who Makes What: Mobile Devices report, released in March 2006, we present here a comprehensive list of vendors of wireless infrastructure equipment, from 802.11 access points to RFID systems to broadband wireless gear."
Search Briefs MSN Windows Live Mobile Site Adds Web Search; Live Mail Beta Now Accessible; Spaces for Mobile (Beta) Enhances Offerings When MSN relaunched their mobile site last August the main search offering was local search. That has changed. The mobile site (we accessed on a Treo 650) and can be seen here on a non-mobile browser now serves up access to MSN Live Search web results to MSN Mobile users. So, what search options will you currently find? + Web Search (Note that each result can be optimized for mobile browsers via a proxy if the user selects the "mobile" link) + Local Search with driving directions + MSN Spaces Search + Improvements to MSN Spaces" Mobile Beta Windows Live Mobile users can also customize the layout of their page, create personalized stock lists, enter home/work addresess to save time and clicks, add a growing number of alerts (we still find the traffic alert very useful) and more. -- Mobile Searching: Google, Yahoo and Many Others Great to see ResourceShelf fave 4info.net featured in article. Btw, Promptu offers speech recognition search for some mobile devices. In other words, speak your search. Other mobile players include: + Yahoo Mobile + Smarter.com + Synfonic.com + UpSnap.com (live audio too including podcasts!) + MSN Mobile (several services and expanding) As the summer rolls on, look for another ResourceShelf initiative, Gary's mobile bookmark collections. Postscript: Don't forget that cameraphone searching is slowly but surely developing traction.
Multimedia Shelf New lectures, presentations, conferences available via webcast or download. Information Technology Webcast: Information Technology, Enterprise Transformation, and the Future of US Higher Education This webcast consists of a lecture by Professor John King, School of Information, University of Michigan, that was given at Oxford University on May 18, 2006. -- Words Source: All Things Considered, National Public Radio Audio: Crikey! Here Come the Chavs "Robert Siegel talks with Verity Jennings, a recent graduate of Leeds Metropolitan University in Britain. Jennings's thesis analyzed the popularity of the term "chavs" in hundreds of newspaper stories. While the origins of the word are murky, Jennings says "chavs" has come to refer to British young people characterized by gold jewelry and sportswear, often in a negative light. But she says references to "chavs" may also create a new sense of belonging." -- Successes and Challenges in Terrorism Prosecutions: An In-Depth Look at Department of Justice Terrorism Cases after 9/11 Event took place at the American Enterprise Institute on Wednesday, May 24, 2006. Direct to video. Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text International Relations--Transcripts United States--History Source: National Security Archive New, Massive Collection of Formerly Secret and Top Secret Transcripts of Henry Kissinger's Meetings with World Leaders Published On-Line "28,000 Pages of Documents Show Kissinger as Negotiator and Policymaker in Real-time, Verbatim Talks with World Leaders." -- Performing Arts--Encyclopedias Source: LOC Just Released, Library of Congress Launches Performing Arts Encyclopedia Online Look for a more detailed look in an upcoming RS post. From the announcement, "A new online Performing Arts Encyclopedia has been developed to serve as a centralized guide for users interested in exploring the performing arts. The encyclopedia focuses on music, motion picture, broadcasting, recorded sound, manuscript, rare book, and other nonbook collections. The resources, which are housed in various divisions of the Library, have been brought together to make them available for easier access and more widespread usage." -- HIV/AIDS--Statistics Source: UNAIDS Just Released, UNAIDS 2006: Report on the Global AIDS Epidemic "According to new data in the UNAIDS 2006 Report on the global AIDS epidemic the AIDS epidemic appears to be slowing down globally, but new infections are continuing to increase in certain regions and countries. The report also shows that important progress has been made in country AIDS responses, including increases in funding and access to treatment, and decreases in HIV prevalence among young people in some countries over the past five years. However AIDS remains an exceptional threat." Summary (PDF) Direct to Full Text
Professional Reading Shelf Proceedings--Databases Meetings--Databases Source: InterDok Now Free! Directory of Published Proceedings (DoPP) Database Subjects Include: + Science / Engineering / Technology + Medical / Life Sciences + Pollution Control / Ecology + Social Sciences / Humanities With author & paper title information. As of today, DoPP contains over 50,000 records. See Also: InterDok's MInd: The Meetings Index Free. "...offers free access to locate future conferences, congresses, meetings and symposia." ResourceShelf first reviewed MInd: The Meetings Index in 2004. -- IM--Search Kozoru Will Release IM Answers Software The Kansas City-area company Kozoru, a company we've been tracking for a couple of years, will release a new service next week (we haven't had a peek yet) that allows the user to ask a question and get a specific answer or set of links back via IM. It sounds very similar to what, for example, AOL has been offering for years and others also provide*. It also sounds a bit like what Ask.com is doing "on the web" with Smart Answers or MSN is doing with Direct Answers. From the article, "The premise behind Kozoru's BYOM (build your own mobile search) technology is that consumers looking for something while in instant messenger want to act on the information: find out the latest weather forecast, settle a bar bet over when Teddy Roosevelt was first elected or read a news story someone on the train just mentioned." We agree, the potential synergy between IM, mobile, and answers is quite strong. Several questions: + Will this service be free? + Will individuals (with no coding experience) be able to create BYOMs? + How long will it take a typical user to create a BYOM? + Who will select sources? For us, that's the key to all of this, source selection. Incorrect choices will likely yield poor results (and incorrect facts) and frustrated users. Will a blog offer the quick answers that an online reference source can provide? Of course, this selection process might be a new role for the info pro and a new marketplace for reference publishers. On a separate note, the author of the News.com article we linked to above mentions both Google's and Yahoo's answer services but makes no mention of the many virtual reference (VR) services libraries have offered long before GA and YA. In fact, the Johnson County Public Library located in Kozoru's backyard offers numerous VR services including 24/7 chat reference. Why chat with a computer via IM when you could interact with a live librarian? Depends on your info need. I think mobile IM is another area VR services needs to consider. I wonder if the Kozoru folks have talked to JCPL about the librarians trying the service in beta mode. If ResourceShelf can help get the two sides together, just holler. UPDATE 1: For more on chatbots AOL offers see this page We've used the Moviefone and Shopping Buddy for many months. Not bad at all. *UPDATE 2: We've learned that MSN Messenger already offers the ability to search and receive direct answers and links via Encarta using IM. Simply send an IM to encarta@conversagent.com and off you go. Not bad. *UPDATE 3: The wonderful Searchforvideo.com offers IM search access to its amazing database. Works with AOL, Yahoo, and MSN. Details here. Update 4: Let's also not forget that SMS (text message) services also offer interactive question answering and services like 4info.net, Smarter.com, Google SMS, and Yahoo SMS. -- Sci-Tech Libraries Source: ISTL New Issue: The spring 2006 issue of Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship is now online Articles include: + Innovative Library Liaison Assessment Activities: Supporting the Scientist's Need to Evaluate Publishing Strategies + Assessing Reference: Using the Wisconsin-Ohio Reference Evaluation Program in an Academic Science Library + The Role of Industry Standards: An Overview of the Top Engineering Schools' Libraries + Webliography: Mapping the Brain: Resources for Researchers in Neurosciences + Review: IEEE/IEE Electronic Library + Review: SpringerLink -- Access to Information Librarians Source: AP Conn. librarians bitterly decry gag order in Patriot Act case "Four otherwise mild-mannered librarians from Connecticut spoke out bitterly for the first time Tuesday after being subjected to a months-long gag order when the FBI demanded records about library patrons under the Patriot Act. U.S. District Judge Janet Hall ruled last year that the gag order should be lifted, saying it unfairly prevented the librarians from participating in a debate over how the Patriot Act should be rewritten. But it wasn't until April that prosecutors dropped an appeal of that order. The librarians, at a press conference organized by the American Civil Liberties Union -- which represented them -- did little to hide their displeasure at being told by the government to keep quiet." See Also: Learn More and Hear from the Librarians Involved in this National Public Radio Report Direct to audio.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Terrorism--Maps Source: MIPT Terrorism Knowledge Base New TKB Terrorism Trends Map Now Available In PDF And Print At No Cost "The TKB team is proud to announce the release of our official TKB Terrorism Trends 2005 map poster. Complete with in-depth information on terrorism throughout the world, this large, colorful map is a must-have for analysts, law enforcement, researchers, or others interested in terrorism. The poster lists the most active groups, most frequent targets and tactics, and the most lethal attacks for 2005. It also offers comparison graphs for several terrorism hotspots. Users can download a PDF copy from the TKB homepage. For a 24' x 34' hard-copy version, simply email your name and mailing address to TKBsupport@tkb.org and we will ship you a copy at no cost. Supplies are limited." -- Real Estate--United States--Foreclosures--Lists & Rankings Source: RealtyTrac Indianapolis, Atlanta, Dallas, Memphis And Denver Top List Of Nations Ten Highest Metropolitan Foreclosure Rates Includes two lists. + Top 10 Metro Foreclosure Rates + Metropolitan foreclosure statistics for the nation's 100 largest MSAs ordered by foreclosure rate -- Commencement--Speeches Source: Humanity.org (The Humanity Initiative) Commencement Speeches "Though these myriad departures and arrivals of everyday existence are seldom met with ceremony, words traditionally reserved for momentous occasions may ring true and inspirational at any hour. That's why we created this unique archive of commencement addresses, selecting an eclectic menu of twenty nine extraordinary speeches from the thousands that we have reviewed since beginning work on this initiative in 1989." -- Animal Noises--Multilingual Source: University of Adelaide School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering Derek Abbott's Animal Noise Page "In different languages what do we say to mimic animal sounds? Below is the world's biggest multilingual list. A guiding principle behind this list is to visualise a comic book, in your language, and imagine what would be written in the text balloon coming from the mouth of an animal. For languages that use a different alphabet, I have tried to transliterate the word into the English alphabet for ease of comparison. A forward slash is used to separate alternative words." Professor Abbott is Director of the Centre for Biomedical Engineering at the University of Adelaide School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering. -- Oceans--Audio Source: NOAA The Sound of the Sea "...contains a selection of audio files that were recorded underwater, related video and animation products, and several spectograms and other images of ocean sound."
DocuTicker Best of DocuTicker DocuTicker is ResourceShelf's sister site and is updated daily with a wide variety of new full text reports on many topics from government agencies, think tanks, ngo's and many other organizations. Here's a small, very small, sample of what we've posted during the past week. + What Price Privacy? The unlawful trade in confidential personal information + Information Security Office of Oversight: 2005 Report to the President + Annual Report to Congress: Military Power of the People's Republic of China
Search Briefs + Ask.com Offers Special Logo For Memorial Day The Ask.com home page was adorned yesterday with a special icon (a ribbon) and link for Memorial Day that read, "Memorial Day: A Day of Rememberance." In case you missed it, here's a screen cap of the Ask page. The link went directly to this Smart Answer loaded with direct links with information about the holiday. At 5pm EDST on Monday, we didn't spot any holiday special logos on Google, MSN, or Yahoo. Btw, Ask.com offers Smart Answers for many holidays. Here are a just a FEW examples: + Labor Day + Boxing Day + Good Friday + Purim
Briefly Congratulations to Metasearch Company MuseGlobal Those of you who have been reading ResourceShelf likely remember that our site was once sponsored by metasearch technology powerhouse, MuseGlobal. Although they're no longer sponsors of ResourceShelf, the entire MuseGlobal team remains a good friend. That's why we were thilled to learn that CSA's MultiSearch product (the one that won the Codie Award) is powered with technology from Muse. Congrats, guys, well deserved! See Also: Test Drive CSA's MultiSearch MultiSearch offers metasearch access to over 1200 databases and other online resources. Monday, May 29, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Public Libraries--Business Services Source: BusinessWeek The Library: Next Best Thing to an MBA "(A)n increasing number of would-be entrepreneurs are turning to their local public libraries for help in every aspect of launching their businesses. According to a 2006 study conducted by the American Library Assn. (ALA), a Chicago-based trade group, 61% of small-business owners living in the U.S. said libraries were important in helping them get started." See Also: More Positive Press About Business Research Ser vices at the Johnson County (KS) Public Library (via KC Business Journal) See Also: The J.J. Hill Business Library in St. Paul, MN, offers many excellent services to entrepreneurs and small business owners. Most of them are accessible remotely. For example, HillSearch.org offers a robust set of databases at a very low cost plus (most importantly) access to the J.J. Hill librarians. -- Broadband--United States--Study Source: Pew Internet & American Life Home Broadband Adoption 2006 "Adoption of high-speed internet at home grew twice as fast in the year prior to March 2006 than in the same time frame from 2004 to 2005. Middle-income Americans accounted for much of the increase, along with African-Americans and new internet users coming online with broadband at home. At the end of March 2006, 42% of Americans had high-speed at home, up from 30% in March 2005, or a 40% increase. And 48 million Americans -- mostly those with high-speed at home -- have posted content to the internet." Direct to Full Text (PDF) -- eBooks--Public Opinion Source: International Digital Publishing Forum (via KnowThis.com) eBook User Survey 2006 (PDF; 235 KB) "eBook retailers seem to have built shopping experiences that satisfy their customers and that the general experience of reading an eBook is a good one. There seems to be some room for improvement for respondents in areas of pricing and selection of eBooks. In regards to DRM issues (ability to move content between devices and lending), there seems to be less satisfaction, but interestingly many respondents seemed to find it far more important to easily move content between devices than to lend content to friends and family. Last, while questions of multimedia, read aloud and assistive technology questions ranked low in terms of satisfaction, a very large majority marked these areas an unimportant to them. There does not seem to be a lot of consumer demand for multimedia eBooks and audio functions in eBooks. Also, not particularly surprising is the fact that assistive technology is not important to a consumer audience that does not require this technology to read." -- Conference Presentations Source: SOLINET SOLINET Annual Membership Meeting: Will Libraries Matter in 2020? Presentations available (PDFs) include the following: + Advocacy: Working with Public Officials + Library Marketing with Meaning: Keeping Up with the Future + User-Driven Libraries: Understanding the Perceptions of Current and Future Library Patrons + How Libraries Are Applying Blogging, Podcasting, and RSS Technologies -- Libraries--Copyright Source: UCLA Law Review (Tushnet; via LibraryLaw Blog) MyLibrary: Copyright and the Role of Institutions in a Peer-to-Peer World (PDF; 6.5 MB) "Today's technology turns every computer -- every hard drive -- into a type of library. But the institutions traditionally known as libraries have been given special consideration under copyright law, even as commercial endeavors and filesharing programs have begun to emulate some of their functions. This article explores how recent technological and legal trends are affecting public and school-affiliated libraries, which have special concerns that are not necessarily captured by an end-consumer-oriented analysis. Despite the promise that technology will empower individuals, we must recognize the crucial structural role of intermediaries that select and distribute copyrighted works. By exploring how traditional libraries are being affected by developments such as filesharing services, the iTunes Music Store, and Google's massive digitization project, this article examines the implications of legal and technological changes that are mainly not directed at libraries, but are nonetheless vital to their continued existence."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Airports--North America--Lists & Rankings Source: Airports Council International-North America Recently Released, Busiest Airports in North America Summary ||| By Total Passengers ||| By Total Cargo ||| By Total Movements "More than 1.52 billion passengers* traveled through North American airports in 2005, an increase of 4.3 percent, Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) announced today. Both cargo and total operations, however, declined slightly by 0.5 percent and 0.2 percent respectively." See Also: By Total Movements (Global) -- Technology--Products--Ranking Source: PC World The 25 Worst Tech Products of All Time "Picking our list wasn't exactly rocket science; it was more like group therapy. PC World staffers and contributors nominated their candidates and then gave each one the sniff test. We sought the worst of the worst--operating systems that operated badly, hardware that never should have left the factory, applications that spied on us and fed our data to shifty marketers, and products that left a legacy of poor performance and bad behavior." Complete list
Briefly Amazon.com & The Internet Movie Database, Plus Power Searching the IMDB Btw, don't forget to read about the IMDB's advanced searching options. Impressive and yet another illustration of what good metadata can do. Sunday, May 28, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Environmental Protection Agency--Libraries Source: Electronic Green Journal Editorial: Protecting Public Access to Environmental Information and Saving the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Libraries "The loss of the information arm of the EPA Libraries will impact not only issues like climate change but also the presence and impacts of chemical in our environment, and other threats to health of our oceans, lands, lakes, and rivers. For now the best thing readers can do is to follow American Library Association's suggestions and contact members of the House of Representatives to address this issue. Go to the website of the House of Representatives at http://www.house.gov/ to locate your representative and voice your concerns over the possible loss of this vital resource. As you read this, libraries are closing or reducing access to their collections, institutional memory is walking out of doors voluntarily and a decades-long reputation of excellence is facing extinction." By Frederick W. Stoss, Associate Librarian: Biological and Environmental Sciences and Mathematics, University at Buffalo, State University of New York. -- Academic Libraries Source: OCLC College Students' Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources "College Students' Perceptions of Libraries and Information Resources examines the information-seeking habits and preferences of international college students. This report is a companion piece to the December 2005 OCLC report.... Overall, respondents have positive, if outdated, views of the 'Library.' Younger respondents -- teenagers and young adults -- do not express positive associations as frequently. These findings, and more, are valuable insights for anyone seeking to know more about the library usage and perceptions of college students and young people." Full Report (PDF; 2.19 MB)
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Clip Art Source: Dorling Kindersley A Collection of Free Clip Art from Reference Publisher Dorling Kindersley Free clip art imagery in over 50 categories. -- Earthqakes--Lists & Rankings Source: USGS Earthquakes: Top 10 Lists & Maps (U.S. and Global) and Earthquake Databases Over 20 lists and rankings See Also: Significant Earthquake Database (via NOAA) "The Significant Earthquake Database contains information on destructive earthquakes from 2150 B.C. to the present..." See Also: Earthquake Intensity Database Search: 1638-1985 (via NOAA) "The Earthquake Intensity Database is a collection of damage and felt reports for over 23,000 U.S. earthquakes. The digital database contains information regarding epicentral coordinates, magnitudes, focal depths, names and coordinates of reporting cities (or localities), reported intensities, and the distance from city (or locality) to epicenter. Earthquakes listed in the file date from 1638 to 1985." -- Science--Q&A's Source: New York Times Science Q&A An archive of asked and answered science questions organized into 11 categories: Animals + Birds & Fish + Human Body & Mind + Insects & Invertebrates + Manufactured Things + Microscopic Life + Plants + Space & Spaceships + The Earth + The Sea + The Weather + Everything Else -- Iraq--Reconstruction Source: Office of the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) (via DocuTicker.com) Iraq Reconstruction Timeline (PDF; 124 KB) "Significant events and expenditures for IRRF (Iraq Relief and Reconstruction Fund) and key sectors." Saturday, May 27, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Internet Filters Source: Brennan Center for Justice, NYU School of Law Just Released, Internet Filters: A Public Policy Report (PDF; 4.36 MB) "The more sophisticated and statistically oriented tests of filtering software in the period from 2001-06 differ widely in their purposes and results. Although statistics and percentages in this field of research can be misleading, one conclusion is clear from all of the studies: filters continue to block large amounts of valuable information. Even the expert witnesses for the government in the CIPA case, who attempted to minimize the rates of error, reported substantial overblocking. Internet filters are powerful, often irrational, censorship tools." -- International Federation of Library Associations Source: IFLA A Selection of Papers to be Presented at World Library and Information Congress: 72nd IFLA General Conference #3 + Japanese Government Libraries Network: serving the customers in the new era + Information literacy as an emancipatory process directed to social inclusion in a knowledge society + Challenges in automated classification using library classification schemes -- Internet--Statistics Source: Telegeography's World Broadband Yearbook TeleGeography Update: Global Broadband Subscribers Over 221m Via an email, "The number of worldwide high-speed Internet subscriber lines surpassed 221 million at the end of 2005, according to the latest analysis released in TeleGeography's World Broadband Yearbook. Most broadband subscribers -- about 65 percent -- access the Internet via DSL technology. The global subscriber total increased 37 percent in 2005, from around 162 million a year earlier, and a little over 106 million in 2003. TeleGeography forecasts the total will grow to 286 million by the end of 2006, before climbing to 448 million by 2010. Broadband Subscribers, December 2005 Asia-Pacific 89,573,436 Europe 63,455,527 U.S. & Canada 53,270,000 L. America/Carib. 9,668,888 Middle East 3,863,210 Africa 1,987,200 Global total 221,818,261" See Also: Chart: International Bandwidth Per Capita, 2005
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Consumer Credit--United States--Statistics Source: Experian National Score Index Maps, charts, and tons of stats. Very interesting stuff. Fast facts: + Average Credit Score (2006)--677 + Average Debt (2006) $11,669.00 -- U.S. Senate--History Source: Congressional Research Service Updated Report: Salaries of Members of Congress: A List of Payable Rates and Effective Dates, 1789-2006 Friday, May 26, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf The Partnership for a Nation of Learners Museums Source: PNL PNL Announces 2nd Videoconference "CPB [Corporation for Public Broadcasting] and IMLS [Institute of Museum and Library Services] are pleased to announce a 2nd Partnership for a Nation of Learners Community Collaboration Videoconference, to be held on Monday, June 19, 2006, from 1:00-3:00 PM. This will once again be an opportunity for local museums, libraries, and public broadcasters to get to know another, to concentrate on why and how their organizations should be working together, and to learn how to gain support for local collaborative projects." See Also: Text Transcripts of Past Events -- Institute of Museum and Library Services IMLS Debuts New Web Site IMLS.gov gets a new look. -- Digital Preservation Source: Library of Congress New Informational Web Site: Library of Congress Web Capture "The Library of Congress has just launched a Web site devoted to information about its program to capture and preserve historically important Web sites so that they can be accessed by future generations of users. The Library of Congress and libraries and archives around the world are interested in collecting and preserving content on the Web because an ever-increasing amount of the world's cultural and intellectual output is created in digital formats and does not exist in any physical form. Creating an archives of Web sites supports the goals of the Library's Digital Strategic Plan, announced in March 2003, which focuses on the collection and management of digital content. The Web Capture Program is directly related to the Library's larger digital preservation program, called the National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program (www.digitalpreservation.gov). The subject areas in which the Library has been collecting Web sites include recent Supreme Court nominations; Hurricane Katrina; and the papal transition following the death of John Paul II. Current collecting projects include the crisis in Darfur, Sudan; the Iraq War; and the upcoming Election 2006. The Library collects Web sites only after it has received formal permission from Web site content owners to do so." See Also: List of Projects See Also: Learn About LC's Minerva Archiving Project See Also: NARA/Internet Archive Collection of U.S. Government Web Material NOW Keyword Searchable "Roughly 75 million web pages and represents about 50,000 '.gov' and '.mil' unrestricted federal web sites active between 10/14/04 and 11/19/04." -- Preservation Source: Ottawa Citizen It's a race against time "Sgt. Tremblay manages a small team of civilian researchers, image technicians, and a string of rotating personnel reassigned to light duty for medical reasons that is trying to scan these photos onto compact discs that are supposed to last 300 years. The scanned pictures will then be sent to Library and Archives Canada for proper storage. But lack of funding and personnel has severely hampered those efforts and the library loses between one and two per cent of its collection -- 10,000 to 20,000 images -- every year because they are not being stored properly. 'It's a race against time,' said Sgt. Tremblay, who estimates it will cost between $1.5 million and $2.5 million over five years to scan and catalogue all of the library's images. That doesn't include the nearly 45,000 reels of old film stored in the building's basement that are in the same peril." -- Public Libraries--Financial Issues Source: Boston.com Cash-strapped town may close its library "Medway residents will decide next month whether to close their public library to help the cash-strapped town cut costs and balance its budget. The library's budget of around $280,000 would be part of a package of around $868,000 in proposed cutbacks that voters will weigh at a June 12 Town Meeting."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text R&D--United States--Lists & Rankings Source: NSF Master Government List of Federally Funded Research and Development Centers -- Veterans--United States--Digitization Projects Source: LOC Coming Monday: Library Of Congress Veterans History Project Will Add Collections from Veterans Who Served in Military Intelligence "'Military Intel: The Inside Story,' a selection of 22 digitized collections of materials submitted by war veterans who served in military intelligence will be highlighted on the Veterans History Project Web site beginning May 25. Military Intel will be added to the 'Experiencing War' stories from the Veterans History Project at www.loc.gov/warstories. This is the 12th set of individual stories -- comprising interviews, letters, photographs and written memoirs -- to be featured on the site. Past themes have included D-Day, prisoners of war, and military medicine." -- Families--United States--Statistics Source: U.S. Census New, Families and Living Arrangements: 2005 "The median age of first marriage was 27.1 years for men and 25.8 years for women last year, up from 23.2 and 20.8 years, respectively, 25 years earlier, according to new information on America's families and households released today by the U.S. Census Bureau. According to Families and Living Arrangements: 2005, the proportion of households consisting of one person living alone increased from 17 percent in 1970 to 26 percent in 2005. In 2005, 10 percent of the nation's households contained five or more people, down from 21 percent in 1970. During the same time period, average household size declined from 3.14 to 2.57 people. -- U.S. Military--Special Operations--Bibliography Source: Air University Library Special Operations 2006 New bibliography includes general information, information about the different Special Operations commands, Special Operations Forces core tasks, history, programs, systems, training, and equipment. -- Adolescents--Cigarettes Source: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (CDC) Use of Cigarettes and Other Tobacco Products Among Students Aged 13--15 Years --- Worldwide, 1999--2005 "This report presents estimates of self-reported cigarette and other tobacco-product use during 1999-2005 in 132 different countries and the Gaza Strip/West Bank. The data are aggregated within each of the six WHO regions. GYTS data indicate that nearly two of every 10 students reported currently using a tobacco product, with no statistically significant difference between the proportion of those reporting cigarette smoking (8.9%) and other tobacco use (11.2%). Use of tobacco by adolescents is a major public health problem in all six WHO regions. Worldwide, more countries need to develop, implement, and evaluate their tobacco-control programs to address the use of all types of tobacco products, especially among girls." Thursday, May 25, 2006
Resource of the Week By Shirl Kennedy, Deputy Editor OK...as far as seasons go, I much prefer baseball season to election season. But nothing good can come from playing ostrich when political leadership is at stake. We have a cool resource to show you this week -- but it has one small flaw you might not notice unless you live in my overpopulated part of west central Florida. Elections 2006--Interactive Map Source: Congressional Quarterly (CQ) CQ 2006 Election Forecast Map Generally speaking, interactive maps are A Good Thing. Usually, they are pretty straightforward -- e.g., no complicated user interface that makes you scratch your head. What you see is pretty much what you get here; when you first click on the link above, you see a map of the United States broken down by congressional district. Each district is color-coded by political leaning: Safe Republican, Republican Favored, Leans Republican, No Clear Favorite, Leans Democrat, Democrat Favored, Safe Democrat. Note the two tabs at the upper right. When you first arrive at the page, you are looking at the "Projected Landscape" of the House of Representatives after the fall elections. If you click on the "Current Landscape" tab, you can view a map of the existing House political situation -- seats held by Republicans, Democrats, Independents and vacant seats. That's the static part of the map. The interactive part happens when you click on a congressional district. Up comes a page describing that district in terms of geography, demographics, election history, workforce make-up and educational attainment. At the top, you see the name of the incumbent, his or her status (e.g., "Running for Re-election"), and CQ's election 2006 forecast (e.g., "Safe" Republican or Democrat, "Leans" Republican or Democrat, "No Clear Favorite"). The data sources are the 2000 U.S. Census -- which is worrisome because of its age at this point, especially in fast-growing parts of the country -- and CQ's Politics in America, a standard reference resource. The most current edition available is CQ's Politics in America 2006: The 109th Congress, which has a date of May 2005. This page also provides you with some news headline links to news stories about politics in that particular state. To the right of the news headlines, you'll see a "Back" link and an X in a box. Clicking on either of these will take you back to the map. At first, I didn't notice this because the type is light gray. Instead, I used the browser's back button to try and get back to the map, but was routed instead to the CQ Politics home page, which looks like a fairly interesting weblog (and has an RSS feed), but it's not where I expected to go. Note that there is a slider to the right of the map which allows you to zoom in or out. Because I live in a geographically small congressional district in the Tampa Bay area, which is quite densely populated, I wanted to enlarge the map to see the district divisions more clearly so I could click on the right one. Alas, when I enlarged the map, my part of Florida slipped behind the House "Balance of Power Scorecard" at the lower right. Fortunately, at the top of the slider, are four arrowheads which allow you to move the map to the left or right, or up or down...but I could only go so far down before the Florida peninsula got truncated. So I had to mess with things a little before I could pinpoint my own congressional district. If you live in a state like Montana, Wyoming, or either of the Dakotas, however, clicking your congressional district is a lot easier because there is only one in each state. Note that it's a lot less complicated when you leave the House view and choose either the Senate or Governors tabs at the upper left, since every state has just two senators and one governor.
Professional Reading Shelf Reference Questions Source: Project Wombat Learn About Project Wombat, The New Stumpers-L The latest on a "classic" reference discussion list. "Project Wombat is an e-mail discussion list for difficult reference questions. Membership is free, and non-members may submit questions for discussion. Project Wombat continues the many fine traditions started by the Stumpers list once offered by Dominican University with some helpful new options." -- Digital Science Source: Association of Research Libraries, Proceedings of the 148th Membership Meeting, 2006 Speech: The International Dimensions of Digital Science and Scholarship A speech by Deanna B. Marcum, Associate Librarian for Library Services, Library of Congress. See Also: Slides from Marcum's Presentation See Also: Other Presentations from the Meeting -- Library and Information Science--Glossary Source: School of Information Resources & Library Science, the University of Arizona SIRLS: The Information Professional's Glossary See Also: OCLC Glossary -- Interactive Television Source: itvt An Interview with the Creators of CNN's New Interactive Service, "CNN Enhanced" Could libraries be involved in other enhanced tv services?
Cool Tools WINKsite Quickly and easily create mobile tools. Free. Impressive and useful. From the site, "In minutes, you can set-up a free mobile site that's available worldwide on any web-enabled phone, PDA or desktop PC. Each mobile site is outfitted with easy-to-use mobile channels including chat, blog, mobile feed reader, surveys, journal, forum, calendar, guestbook, bookmarks, email and more." See Also: Mobile Versions (Beta) of ResourceShelf and DocuTicker. Powered by WINKsite.
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Business Research--United States SEC EDGAR Source: The Virtual Chase Tyburski Says PWC's EdgarScan Database Now Searching Full Text of SEC EDGAR Docs Yes, a full text EDGAR database for free. Many of the free EDGAR services only search info found header and not the full text of documents. Direct to EdgarScan. See Also: The Always Useful SECInfo.com (Free) Allows Full Text Searching of Document Subsets. -- Newspaper Archives Source: NewspaperARCHIVE.com Yet Another New Archive, This Time Over 50,000 Articles About Hurricanes in the U.S. Wow, NewspaperArchive appears to be releasing about one new (and free) archive a week. This time thousands of full text, full image articles about hurricanes. Full text search, save, print. All free. "Newspaper articles about hurricanes tell stories of those affected by some of Mother Nature's most powerful disasters. From the Galveston Hurricane of 1900, the deadliest natural disaster in US history, to Hurricane Katrina." See Also: Links to Other NewspaperArchive Free Databases Even more here and here. -- Financial Services--United States--Statistics Source: III Financial Services Fact Book 2006 See Also: Insurance Related Statistics -- Phishing--Statistics Source: Anti-Phishing Working Group New, April Phishing Activity Trends Report PDF. "Phish Reports drop slightly in April...Malware-dropping URLs and new Trojans continues to grow." -- Media--Children Source: Kaiser Family Foundation Study Shows How Kids' Media Use Helps Parents Cope "Electronic media is a central focus of many very young children's lives, used by parents to help manage busy schedules, keep the peace, and facilitate family routines such as eating, relaxing, and falling asleep, according to a new national study by the Kaiser Family Foundation. Many parents also express satisfaction with the educational benefits of TV and how it can teach positive behaviors." News Release/Webcast ||| Direct to Full Text
Briefly + Mary Rasenberger Named Director of Program Management for National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program -- + ProQuest Ponders Divestment in Face of Financial Woes -- UK: British Library Introduces New Icons to Help Show Do's and Dont's
Search Briefs + Coming Soon: AOL Plans Broadband Search Service (via News.com) & Link to AOL Video Now Found On Google Video Home Page Federated or meta search from AOL? From the article, "[AOL's CEO Jonathan] Miller did not provide details beyond saying that the new search function would involve multiple sources and load quickly." Of course, AOL's web database is powered or as they say "enhanced" by Google. The AOL/Google deal was renewed last December. Speaking of AOL and Google, have you noticed the direct link (upper right in the gray bar) to AOL's Video Search engine on the Google Video home page? Not at all a surprise. When the AOL/Google deal was announced we learned that part of it would include video. Specifically, the news release read, "collaborating in video search and showcasing AOL's premium video service within Google Video." It looks like this is it or at least the beginning. One wonders if the Google Video and AOL Video databases will one day merge into one and/or will negotiating for video content become a joint effort between both organizations? -- Web Search--MSN MSN Autos Vertcal Now Offering It's Own Search Tool (Beta) Look for the MSN Auto search box, top right on the home page and other "inside" pages. SERPS contain results in 4 categories. Here's a sample search for Toyota Prius. + All Results + Research + Articles + Auto Shows (News from various auto shows like Detroit (NAIAS), Tokyo, Chicago, etc.)
Multimedia Shelf Recent lectures and presentations available for streaming or download. Intelligence Source: Council on Foreign Relations + The Digital Spy: How Technology is Changing the Intelligence Community (audio) Speakers: Bryan Cunningham, Principal,Morgan & Cunningham LLC Jeff Jonas, Distinguished Engineer and Chief Scientist, IBM Entity Analytics Presider: Daniel B. Prieto, Director and Senior Fellow, Homeland Security Center The Reform Institute; former executive at America Online Recorded May 19, 2006. MP3. Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf International Federatation of Library Associations Source: IFLA A Selection of Papers to be Presented at World Library and Information Congress: 72nd IFLA General Conference #2 + Directories of international repositories: research results and recommendations + Web accessibility: a review of research and initiatives + Information literacy as an emancipatory process directed to social inclusion in a knowledge society + Dynamic Transformation of the National Diet Library: From the Researcher's Library to the Library for All + Enabling Library and Information Skills: Foundations for Entering Students + Integrating Information Literacy in a First-Year University Course: A Case Study from Canada See Also: Compilation #1 -- Scholarly Literature Open Computation: Beyond Human-Reader-Centric Views of Scholarly Literatures A new book chapter by Clifford Lynch to appear in Open Access: Key Strategic, Technical and Ecomomic Aspects, Neil Jacobs (Ed.), (Oxford: Chandos Publishing), Spring 2006. "...speculating about the interactions between the emerging technologies of text mining, licensing electronic scholarly journals, and open access." Also available in PDF. -- Medical Literature--Open Access Source: Canadian Health Libraries Association 2006: Pearls of Wisdom (via E-LIS) Open Access for the Medical Librarian "The most important aspects of open access for the medical librarian are presented. Reasons for open access include access to research information, access to taxpayer-funded research, facilitation of evidence-based medicine, equity of access, promotion of author control, and controlling library costs. The two primary approaches to open access, via author self-archiving and open access publishing, are presented. Key open access policy developments are highlighted. Many of the major policy initiatives of the moment are from the research funders. From the researcher funders' point of view, open access means more research impact, more real-world impact when professionals can access the literature, and value is illustrated to the taxpayer, building support for further research funding. The world's largest medical research funders, including the U.S. National Institute of Health and the Wellcome Trust, have public access policies, and many more policies are in development. For example, two weeks ago the Federal Research Public Access Act was introduced in the U.S. Senate. One of the essential elements of open access policy is ensuring that researchers are required, not requested, to deposit works. In Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research has a policy in development called Access to Products of Research; public comments are due May 15, 2006. The dramatic growth of open access - over 2,220 journals in DOAJ, over 7.3 million items in an OAIster search - is discussed, as is the idea of new roles for librarians in an open access environment." Presentation; PDF (137 KB) or PowerPoint (80 KB). See also: Bill demands free public access to science reports (Federal Computer Week) -- Scholarly Publishing--Avian Influenza-- Source: Proceedings International Workshop on Webometrics, Informetrics and Scientometrics & Seventh COLLNET Meeting (via E-LIS) Cooperation bibliogram of bird flu "The published literature on Bird Flu, now a pandemic animal disease with a possible potential of evolving into a devastating human disease, was analysed primarily with respect of national and international cooperations and networks of authors and countries. The output of research-relevant papers is now around 150 per year and was less than 100 papers per year before 2003. The field is highly cooperative; nearly 90% of the articles have two or more authors. National extramural cooperation is around 50% since 1998, intramural cooperation shows a decreasing tendency and is now about 20%. Between 20% and 30% of the papers have been published in bi- or multinational cooperation. Observed and expected citation rates of international papers are twice as high as the citation rates of national papers. 47 countries are engaged in Bird Flu research, on top USA, followed by PEOPLES R CHINA, UK and JAPAN. These countries are also centers of country networks, but minor centers exist. An Asian local network with strong ties consisting of countries most affected by Bird Flu can be identified.. No strong direct connections exist between Europe and Asia; thus it seems necessary to intensify international cooperation. Author network show interesting cluster structures which must be studied in detail." Full Paper (PDF; 1.27 MB) -- Digital Archiving Source: UKOLN Material on Digital Archiving presentation available "Slides are now available from the presentation entitled 'Digital Archiving' to the East Anglia Online User Group (EAOLUG) given by Maureen Pennock of UKOLN. The event, called 'Digital Archives and Records Management', took place at the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, on 23 May 2006." See Also: Archiving Web Site Resources : a Records Management View Poster presented at the WWW 2006 conference, Edinburgh Scotland. Thanks to PADI for the news tip.
Scholarly Publishing--Citation Reports Source: ISI + The Most-Cited Institutions in Computer Science, 1995-2005 + Australian Universities: Most Prolific in Agricultural Sciences, 2001-05 + Science in Germany, 2001-05 ||| 10-Year Country Rankings for: Germany + Journals Ranked by Impact: Education & Educational Research + U.S. Universities with Highest Concentrations in Mathematics, 2001-05 + The 10 most-cited countries in Immunology, 1995-December 31, 2005, sorted by 3 separate measures
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Elections--Worldwide Source: Parliamentary Library, Australia Guide to Elections Around the World 2006 "This electronic brief provides links to web-based information and full-text articles relevant to selected countries having national elections in 2006." -- Computers--Statistics Source: Computer Industry Almanac New, PCs In-Use Surpassed 900M in 2005. USA Accounts for over 25% of PCs In-Use Includes list of Top 15 Countries In PCs In-Use. -- Outsourcing--Companies--Lists & Ranking Source: International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) The Global Outsourcing 100 "The International Association of Outsourcing Professionals (IAOP) is pleased to announce the following companies have been selected to the first-ever listing of the world's top outsourcing service providers -- The Global Outsourcing 100." Methodology -- Aging--Web Resources Source: AARP Policy & Research Global Aging Program "AARP was one of the first organizations to recognize aging as a truly worldwide phenomenon that requires global cooperation. We wish to facilitate international understanding and dialogue around the global aging agenda. AARP will work with governments and opinion leaders by participating in international, social and economic policy debates to formulate global responses addressing the challenges associated with world aging." In addition to news, reports and other publications, includes: + International Conference Calendar + International and Regional Organizations and Networks Concerned With Aging + Periodicals for Seniors From Around the World + Organizations for Seniors Around the World + Aging Everywhere: Intereactive map offering "resources on the 50+ population worldwide." + AgeSource Worldwide: Database that "provides links to over 300 major or unique libraries, clearinghouses, databases, directories, bibliographies, and Web metasites around the world that focus on aging or closely allied subjects. Some 30 countries are represented in AgeSource Worldwide." -- Information Technology--Lists & Rankings Source: Business 2.0 100 Fastest-Growing Technology Companies, 2006 Sort by state available. Top 10 are: 1. Celgene 2. Red Hat 3. Apple Computer 4. SanDisk 5. ValueClick 6. Palomar Medical Technologies 7. aQuantive 8. LifeCell 9. Gilead Sciences 10. Clinical Data -- Parks--United StatesLists & Rankings Source: Center for City Park Excellence Fast Facts: Parks + The 100 Largest City Parks + City Park Acreage as a Percentage of the Area of the City + Total Spending on Parks and Recreation Per Resident in the Major Cities + The Oldest City Parks in the U.S.
Briefly + UBM and Convera to Co-develop Search Engine for Healthcare Professionals -- + Website for Wales "The website, www.library.wales.org, brings together a range of free online services with a Welsh flavour. It includes useful links, live information feeds (RSS), the reference library KnowUK and news database NewsUK, along with established services such as Ask Cymru and Wales on the Web."
Search Briefs Online Maps & Aerial Imagery Ask.com Maps and Aerial Imagery of Europe Barry's post on Tuesday about MSN Live Local rolling out more imagery of Europe (cool stuff!) reminded us to mention that Ask.com Maps provides aerial imagery and street maps for some parts of Europe. It's still a work in progress (street names, locations for searching) but the Ask.com Maps imagery looks very impressive. We also have imagery for a small portion of Australia. This map (PDF) offers a look at what resolution you'll find for imagery for various parts of Europe. Some examples: + Charles De Gaulle Airport in Paris, France + Houses of Parliament, London + The Canals of Amsterdam Btw, in many, but not all cases, Ask Maps "dynamic locations" feature will work for European locations. The same is true for driving and walking directions. Remember, "right-clicking" on a specific point on a map allows you to quickly and easily add that location to your location list. -- -- Web Search--MSN Live Local Microsoft Live Local Adds Traffic Info, Traffic Info Has Been Accessible via MSN Autos for Some Time 1) Map Live Traffic for Major Cities Over 30 cities available. Click the traffic link at the top of the page to find the cities available. MS has offered real-time traffic info on maps on their MSN Auto site for a long time. The only difference from what we can see, the maps themselves. Actually, traffic info is available for many more cities via MSN Autos than MSN Live Local. Btw, the MSN Auto site also offers real-time traffic info delivered via SMS, MSN Messenger, or email for very localized areas. Yahoo Maps also offers real-time traffic maps. Traffic data is provided by Traffic.com. Btw, Traffic.com offers a great set of services (free) including traffic alerts via RSS and custom alerts delivered by voice (via your phone). 2) Save favorite Maps to Windows Live Favorites 3) Collections, "Keep lists of important Windows Live Local locations, order them any way you want, and share them with your friends." 4) You'll also notice that the Live Local search boxes have moved from side-by-side placement to vertical placement. 5) Bird's Eye Imagery of Some UK Locations 6) Driving Directions for Europe 7) More info here. -- -- Web Search--Google Google Wants to Talk, Again Just a few weeks after the Google shareholder meeting, Google Press Day, and Google Analyst Day, Google brass have announced yet another get together. This time around, a web conference/webcast (May 31, 2006 at 11am PDST) to tell investors and analysts more about what's happening at the company. From an email, "As our CEO Eric Schmidt mentioned during our last earnings call (listen here), we would like to offer more opportunities for the investment community to interact with our senior management," said Kim Jabal, Director of Investor Relations, Google. "We hope that this call will be valuable to investors and provide further insights into our business." Interesting, a company that was first quiet about talking about the future, now wants to talk a lot. Reuters goes on to point out, "The stock is down roughly 10 percent so far this year on concerns about mounting competition in the Internet industry and Wall Street's frustration with Google's refusal to provide guidance on its financial outlook." Interesting to note that today's announcement comes about a day after Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave an exclusive interview to CNBC. Highlights and video from the interview are posted here on ResourceShelf. Btw, no word about who will be able to ask questions. Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Professional Reading Shelf Digitization Source: HP Research Quality Assurance in High Volume Document Digitization: A Survey "Quality assurance (QA) plays a critical role in high volume document digitization projects by making sure that the specified quality standard is reached under cost and time constraints. This paper takes a systematic view on this issue by summarizing and abstracting related existing work: quality bottlenecks and technical solutions throughout the whole processing pipeline, including cataloging, capture, image analysis and recognition, and error cascading; various strategies to conduct cost-effective QA, such as combination of auto-QA and manual QA, batch QA, special QA user interface, and open source QA." See Also: A Content Integrity Service For Long-Term Digital Archives -- National Science Digital Library Source: EDUCAUSE Building a National Science Digital Library An archived version of this lecture and Q&A with Dean B. Krafft is now available. It was presented live on May 8, 2006. Access is free. From the overview: "Since 2000, the National Science Digital Library (NSDL) Core Integration team has been creating the infrastructure for a digital library of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics resources. That library now contains more than a million resources from approximately 100 collections. In this talk, Dean Krafft will give a short historical overview of the NSDL and describe the current NSDL community and participants. He will then review the technical underpinnings of NSDL 1.0, a library built on metadata harvesting, and describe some of the challenges encountered. For the past year, the project has been working on NSDL 2.0, a new version of the library built on the Fedora repository architecture. For the last part of the talk, Krafft will describe this new library architecture and explain how it supports creating context for science resources, how it enhances the selection and use of library materials, and what these capabilities mean for the users of the NSDL." -- Council on Library and Information Resources Source: CLIR CLIR Issues Articles include: + Symposium Kicks Off Fiftieth Anniversary Celebration (CLIR's Fiftieth Anniversary Sponsors' Symposium) + Libraries: Diffuse and In the Flow + CLIR Appoints Committee to Advise on Place as Library -- PubMed Source: NLM Search Help: NIH Grant Numbers in PubMed Citations See Also: PubMed Tutorial Updated See Also: Wellcome Trust Grant Number Added to MEDLINE/PubMed Citations See Also: New MedlinePLUS Magazine -- Brazil--Webliographies Source: C&RL News New, Brazilian studies: Online resources for researchers Compiled by Edward A. Riedinger. "[Riedinger] heads the Latin American Studies Library and is professor for Brazilian Studies at Ohio State University. He is also editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia of Brazilian History and Culture (Routledge, 2009) and will be a visiting researcher in the Centre for Brazilian Studies at Oxford University in the autumn."
Resources, Reports, Tools, Lists, and Full Text Driving Laws--United States--Databases Source: AAA The Digest of Motor Laws >-- Hurricanes--United States--Predictions Source: NOAA Just Released: 2006 Atlantic Hurricane Outlook "NOAA's 2006 Atlantic hurricane season outlook indicates an 80% chance of an above-normal hurricane season, a 15% chance of a near-normal season, and only a 5% chance of a below-normal season. This outlook is produced by scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Climate Prediction Center (CPC), National Hurricane Center (NHC), and Hurricane Research Division (HRD). See NOAA's definitions of above-, near-, and below-normal seasons." See Also: Fast Facts: 2006 Hurricane Season Begin (via U.S. Census) A myriad of fast facts and stats about the upcoming season. -- Federal Court--United States Source: U.S. Courts New Locator: U.S. Federal Court Lookup Database "Contacting the nearest federal court, or the federal court you need, is easier than it used to be. You now can search for the right court, or court office, by city, zip code, area code, and more." Thanks to Genie Tyburski at The Virtual Chase for the news tip. -- Government--Latin America--Archives Source: LANIC (University of Texas) Latin American Government Documents Archive From the site, "The Latin American Government Documents Archive (LAGDA) seeks to preserve and facilitate access to a wide range of ministerial and presidential documents from 18 Latin American and Caribbean countries. The Archive contains copies of the Web sites of approximately 300 government ministries and presidencies. Capture of sites began on multiple dates in 2005 and 2006, and will continue with regularly scheduled captures." Powered by the Internet Archive's Archive-It service. See Also: Political Database of the America's (via Georgetown University)
Search Briefs Web Search--Google Source: WSJ/CNBC Video: Google CEO Eric Schmidt Interviewed on CNBC, Part One ++ Video: Part Two (Google and Microsoft) While Schmidt is in London for a Google "Zeitgeist" Conference, Maria Baritromo talks with with the CEO about advertising, and "whether Google is becoming the next Microsoft." Q: Is there a plan "b" on where growth comes from now? Eric Schmidt: I don't know if there is a plan "b" beyond what you said [targeted advertising]. "It seems to me that Google as a business is in the targeted advertising business." NOTE: About a week ago Schmidt said that Google is the only player emphasizing search. A week early and again last week Ask.com CEO, Jim Lanzone told CNBC that Ask.com is also focusing on and emphasizing search. Q: Is your goal to become a portal? Eric Schmidt: It depends on what you mean by a portal. Many people use the word but mean different things. We prefer to think we want to get you to the information as quickly as possible. A lot of information is personal and a lot of that information is searchable. So, when we talk about search we talk about it in a very broad context. We mean not only the world's information but your personal information. Q: So it sounds like that is pretty much a portal. Eric Schmidt: It's the way portals used to be. Before portals became specialized content. The original portal in the early 1990's, was simply a window to go through to get to that information. Indeed, Google will be that and will be a good one. Other Comments + "We don't compete with content companies because we don't produce content ourselves." + On the CNET issue from last year. Schmidt: "There is a difference between information being available and publicizing that information. The fact that personal information is around doesn't mean it should be publicized." Schmidt adds they're working well with CNET now. Note: The Google/CNET story was years ago (in Internet time) but it still seems odd (especially after these comments) that a legitimate news organization (CNET) runs into problems by using public information in a profile of a public figure. If the public only new what was easily accessible about them in specialty databases. Google and Microsoft Q: Is Google underestimating Microsoft Eric Schmidt: We're focused on our overall mission...Competition is very healthy. What people miss however is that this is a much much bigger space that the IT industry for example. Multiple choices, multiple choices may be successful. So, we believe that our strategy will be succesful and it may also be true that our competitors strategies will also be succcessful, at least for a while. I don't think it's a zero-sum game. On MS taking search market share. Schmidt: They need to ship the products first. On Asia Long-term, Asia is biggest o |
