Here’s another novel way of using Twitter. It’s a relatively new service named PackageTrack that lets you track packages (FedEx, USPS, and UPS) by sending a direct message to Twitter. As the package moves from one location to the next you are sent a tweet. It’s a free resource.

From the Announcement:

Two of the oldest known copies of the Qur’an will be available to researchers and scholars across the world today (8 July 2009) – as part of a major project to digitise one of the richest collections of Eastern manuscripts.

The two Qur’ans, one of which may date from the 7th century A.D, are part of the priceless Mingana Collection, which is housed by the University of Birmingham.

The University’s Special Collections department has painstakingly digitised more than 10,000 pages from the collection. As well as the Qur’ans the documents now online include unique illustrated manuscripts from the 16th century and early Arabic poetry. The project has been generously supported by JISC and The Edward Cadbury Charitable Trust.

Access the Virtual Manuscript Room

Source: JISC

The Pacific Research Institute Releases Primer on Internet Privacy

The Pacific Research Institute (PRI) announced today the release of a new report on Internet privacy and security. Click Confidential: A Privacy Primer for the Social Web, authored by Daniel Ballon, Ph.D., PRI senior fellow in technology studies, outlines the detrimental affects of government regulated privacy policy on emerging online businesses. He also provides effective strategies for empowering consumers while promoting choice and competition.

+ Full Document (PDF; 8.2 MB)

Source: Pacific Research Institute

FY 2009 Grant Awards: American Recovery and Reinvestment Act

The following nonprofit arts organizations are receiving grants to support the preservation of jobs that are threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn.

View alphabetically, by state, or by category.

Source: National Endowment for the Humanities

CDC Launches New Environmental Public Health Tracking Network

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced today the launch of the Web-based Environmental Public Health Tracking Network, a surveillance tool that scientists, health professionals, and – for the first time – members of the public can use to track environmental exposures and chronic health conditions.
…
The web-based tool unites vital environmental information from across the country, including air and water pollutants and information for some chronic conditions, including asthma, cancer, childhood lead poisoning and heart disease into one resource.

While scientists know exposures such as air particle pollution and lead contribute to illnesses, many environmental and health connections remain unproven since detailed health and environmental data existed in separate silos until now.

+ National Environmental Public Health Tracking Network

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

From the Article:

The National Archives are being “dumbed down”, stripped of funding and are in danger of being turned into little more than a “glorified family history centre”, a researcher claimed yesterday.

Source: The Telegraph
Hat Tip: Amia Newsbriefs

From a Blog Post:

TOXMAP now has updated mortality data and a new look for TOXMAP News. News now uses the Movable Type blog software to manage its news. Other TOXMAP updates include:

+ the ability to enter map descriptions to saved search results;
+ the TOXMAP widget and toolbar; and
+ several bug fixes.

Source: National Library of Medicine

A slew of content is available online. Here are the titles of some (just a few) of the presentations that are available to read/view online. This conference took place in Milan, Italy at the beginning of June, 2009.

+ Connecting Readers with Open Access Resources: The CUFTS Free! Open Access Collections Group

+ Building a Digital Library with Learning Materials

+ Exploring the costs and benefits of alternative publishing models

+ Understanding how Students and Faculty REALLY use E-Books: The UK National E-Books Observatory

+ Self-Archiving in practice: What do the researchers say and is there any pain alleviation?

+ The PROBADO-Framework: Content-Based Queries for non-textual Documents

+ PLoS One: background, future development, and article-level metrics

+ Scientific publications on Web 3.0

+ Building a Semantic Digital Library for the Municipality of Milan

+ Digital Futures: Strategies for the Information Age

+ Social Tagging Workshop

+ Many other presentations, demonstrations and short papers.

Access these and other papers and presentations.

Not only can these new animated video guides be useful to archive users but they also might be worth a look for those libraries and archives considering offer video video “How to Use” resources.

Six Videos Were Recently Made Available:

+ How the records are arranged

+ The life of a document

+ Using the catalogue

+ Ordering documents

+ Preparing to research

+ Recording research results

Direct to Videos

Source: National Archives (UK)

The long rumored Google operating sytem is no longer a rumor. Danny Sullivan writes on Search Engine Land:

The company says that the OS will be released later this year (likely in the fall, I’m told) to developers, designed primarily for netbooks but not limited to them. Then in 2010, it expects it will be available to consumers (though no doubt, many enthusiasts will try it on their own machines).

Source: Search Engine Land

See Also: Google’s own blog post about the new OS.

Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.

From the Announcement:

The National Information Standards Organization (NISO) and OCLC announce the publication of a white paper on Streamlining Book Metadata Workflow, written by consultant Judy Luther (President, Informed Strategies), that analyzes the current state of metadata creation, exchange, and use throughout the book supply chain.

With the number of book formats multiplying and the amount of digital content growing rapidly, the metadata required to support the discovery, sale, and use of content by a global audience is increasing exponentially. At the same time, economic pressures on all stakeholders in the supply chain—from publishers to wholesalers to booksellers to metadata suppliers and to librarians—present greater challenges for providing quality and comprehensive metadata at every point in the cycle.

Through interviews with over 30 industry representatives, Luther has created a book metadata exchange map illustrating the workflow and metadata exchange and has identified opportunities for eliminating redundancies and making the entire process more economical.

Access the Complete White Paper (25 pages; PDF)

Source: OCLC/NISO

From the Article:

Twitter has gained academic respectability with inclusion in the Collins English Dictionary.

The social networking tool, which has 1.8 million users, will be listed in the 30th anniversary edition to be published later this year.

The word Twitterati, referring to users of the website, will also be entered, as will Twitterverse, which defines the website and its users.

Source: The Telegraph
Hat Tip: D.S.
Hat Tip: Mashable

From the AP Story:

A woman who worked with her cousin to steal the identities of 13 unsuspecting Library of Congress employees was sentenced Monday to two and a half years in prison.

Source: AP (via Next Gov)

From the News Report:

Sage apologizes to board of political science journal for making leadership change without consulting academics — and signs deal to run sociology association’s scholarly publications.

Source: Inside Higher Ed

From the Announcement:

The JISC-funded A Vision of Britain Through Time website1 launches today, giving e-access, often for the first time, to over two centuries’ worth of facts, figures, surveys, maps, election results and travel writing showing how 15,000 UK places have changed.

Access A Vision of Britain Through Time
Note: The site is experiencing heavy traffic at the moment.

Source: JISC