Electronic Journals–Databases–Australia
National Library of Australia Launches Australian Journals OnLine (AJOL)
From the site, “AJOL is the National Library of Australia’s database of Australian electronic journals, magazines, webzines, newsletters and e-mail fanzines. The database provides full details and access to over 1700 titles that include local and overseas works with Australian content, authorship and/or emphasis as well as entries for sites which advertise or promote Australian journals.”

New/Updated Resources
Health–National Library of Medicine–Database
URL CHANGE
The National Library of Medicine Announces OPAC Upgrade
From the Release, “The new version of LOCATORplus provides many new search and retrieval features which include the ability for the user to select the sort of the retrieval, the ability to jump to specific page of the retrieval; the ability to quickly set common limits, and many more.”
NOTE THE NEW URL: http://locatorplus.gov
The Old url will redirect at the present time.

U.S. Congress–Directory
Congressional Picture Directory for the 107th Congress Now Available

Canada–Archives
The National Archives of Canada Launches Redesigned Site.

New Service–CEOExpress
CEOExpress Launches Premium Content Service
Say hello to a “premium” subscription service, CEOExpress Select.

Something New?
Say Hello to Relevare
Relevare wants to save people time, something that those of us in the library/information profession have been doing for quite awhile. (:
In fact, the passage posted here sounds quite similar to what many of us do on a daily basis. From the article, “London-based Relevare – formerly Searchworks – is aiming to intelligently suck relevant information off the Internet for companies and organisations to present to their staff and customers in a simple way. Relevare creates portals along specific subject lines, pooling information from the client’s own organisation and adding frequent filtered updates from the many sources of the Internet.”
Companies Mentioned:
Relevare
Autonomy

Full-Text Report Shelf
Plugged In, Tuning Up: An Assessment of State Legislative Websites
Source: OMB Watch
From the Report: “This report represents a collective independent assessment of central online “entry points” for the 50 U.S. state legislatures, and is not intended as a scientific critical review of every website for each state legislature or associated entity. Findings are based on visits to websites between July and December 2000, when legislatures were out of session.”

Medicine–Pharmaceuticals–Reference–Database
Pharma-Lexicon
This “dictionary of pharmaceuticals” provides searchable access to about 22,000 abbreviations and acronyms. Compiled by health professionals.

Libraries–Law Suits–Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA)
ALA, Others Set To File Suit Today
See Also: ALA’s CIPA Web Site

American Memory Project–Additions & Updates
More wonderful content from the Library of Congress
New–Capital and the Bay: Narratives of Washington and the Chesapeake Bay Region, 1600-1900
“…provides access to first-person accounts, early histories, historical biographies, and other works reflecting the history and growth of the Chesapeake Bay region and the capital city of the United States that lies within it…The Capital and the Bay contains 141 books selected from the Library of Congress’s General Collections and the Rare Books Division.”

Image Search–Diggit
Looking for an image search tool?
Take a look at: Diggit! Image Search.
Make sure to note the advanced search interface and several alternative user interfaces.

The Information Industry–Questia
Questia: The Story
Key Paragraph:”[Troy] Williams [Founder, President & CEO of Questia] wanted to do for college kids studying the humanities what Westlaw.com does for lawyers: put whole libraries of research material online, accessible at any hour and searchable by titles, subjects, keywords and hyperlinks. You could research a term paper on literature or economics or philosophy and, as you write it, use software to generate footnotes and a bibliography.” You will need to register to read the article via the Forbes site.
More from the Questia site.

Health–Databases–MEDLINEplus
Patient Education Interactive Tutorials Added to MEDLINEplus
Over 30 tutorials are available. From the news release: “Each module, which takes about 10 minutes to review, uses animated graphics and explains a condition or procedure in easy-to read language. The user can also listen to the tutorial or print the text of each from a PDF file. The modules require a Flash plug-in, version 4 or above, which may be downloaded free of charge.”

Fast Facts
Federal Reserve Board–Federal Funds Rate–List
“Intended Federal Funds Rate” (change, 1990-Present)

Documents in the News
U.S. Congress–Communications
Source: Congressional Management Foundation
E-Mail Overload in Congress: Managing a Communications Crisis
Additional Resources are also available via the CMF home page.
Full Story via Federal Computer Week

Patent & Trademarks–Search
US Patent & Trademark Office Offers New Database, Searchable Patent Apps
News Release Highlight: “Publication of patent applications before a patent is granted is one of the most fundamentally significant changes to the U.S. patent system in over 100 years, said Nicholas Godici, acting Under Secretary of Commerce and acting Director of the USPTO. “Published applications will become an important reservoir of reference materials for patent examiners and a valuable resource to the public as the volume of published applications increases.
“Forty-seven applications were published in a variety of technical fields including surgical devices, chemical processes, and business methods…New applications are published every Thursday. The number of patent applications published by USPTO is anticipated to increase over the next eighteen months until roughly 3500 applications are published weekly.” Direct to Search Interface.

Digital Libraries–Projects
A Couple of New or Just Discovered Digitization Projects
Everglades Information Network
Provided by: Florida International University

Wright Air Development Center (WADC) Digital Collection
From an e-mail message: “This resource includes scanned government technical reports created by WADC throughout the 1950’s and 1960’s as part of the space race. They are an excellent resource for historians, as well as researchers in Aerospace and Materials Science.”
Provided by: Illinois Institute of Technology

Foreign Relations of the United States (1900-1918)
Provided by: University of Wisconsin/University of Illinois-Chicago

Full-Text Report Shelf
Freedom of Information Act–Reports
Progress in Implementing the 1996 Electronic Freedom of Information Act Amendments
GAO-01-378

Librarian Resources
Reference Services–Surveys–Bibliography
“Library Surveys with Emphasis on Reference Services: A Selective Bibliography”
Source: National Library of Canada

Health–Cancer–Database–Maps
Environment–Toxic Releases–Maps
New Cancer Deaths and Toxic Releases Mapping Resource From Health-Track.Org
From the Press Release: “…easy access to combined data on mortality rates for cancers known or suspected to have environmental causes and on toxic chemical releases of known or probable carcinogens.”
Additional Resources are available via the Health-Track home page.
See Also: Atlas of Cancer Mortality in the United States, 1950-1994
See Also: Cancer Mortality Databank-WHO (World Health Organization)

Intelligence/National Security–Congressional Research Service–Reports
The Congressional Research Service provides authoritative research on many subjects. A large percentage of the material that CRS produces is NOT available to the public. However, some material is available via various organizations and members of Congress. In addition to this weblog, I compile a collection of sites where you can locate some of the material that IS publicly accessible. In the last few weeks, the Federation of American Scientists has updated several reports.

“Intelligence Issues for Congress,” updated 4/2/2001

“China/Taiwan: Evolution of the “One China” Policy — Key Statements from Washington, Beijing, and Taipei,” updated 4/12/2001

Additional Resources: FAS CRS Collection
CRS WWW Accessible Reports

Technology–Richest–List
Source: Forbes ASAP
“Techs 100 Highest Rollers”

Full-Text Document Shelf (2 Items)
Documents in the News
Info Technology–Security
GAO Report: IRS Electronic Filing Systems
See: “Electronic Tax Data Found Vulnerable at IRS”
Source: (Computerworld)

Disabilities–United States
Source: U.S. Census
Americans With Disabilities: 1997
Highlights & Info ||| Full-Text

Resource Briefs
U.S. Congress–Publications–Directory
GPO Congressional Publication Releases
This wonderful current awareness tool will guide you to recently released GPO publications from the U.S. Congress. Some publications are not available online but information about accessing them is provided. Thanks to the Law Librarians’ Society of Washington, D.C. for providing this useful service.

Software–Reviews
Looking for Software Reviews?
A newly expanded review resource from CNET. From the announcement: “You may not notice anything different, but just below the surface–supporting our daily stream of features, columns, and reviews of applications, operating systems, and services–lies a robust directory of 4,000-plus software titles. Not only does the directory offer specs, company and licensing information, and regularly updated prices, it also allows you to compare multiple products side by side.”

Campaign Finance–Reference
Brookings Expands Campaign Finance Resource
The site provides full-text access to Campaign Finance Reform: A Sourcebook.
Direct Link to Site

Future Event Watch–MIR Reentry
You Can Watch it on the Web
More resources and direct link to Webcast

The Web Search Business
“Google Searches For Dollars“
Source: Forbes
Key Graph:”But to make a profit, some industry watchers think Google will have to toss its prized integrity and tailor some of its search results to favor companies willing to pay for better placement–like most of Google’s rival search engines. Google says it has no plans to go that route, but [Danny] Sullivan says it’s inevitable.”

Search Engines–U.S. Government
Source: Federal Computer Week
“FirstGov ready for next page”
The database is growing in size, wonderful. However, a better search interface, better help/documentation, improving precision/relevance, etc. are becoming increasingly essential as the total database size increases.

Libraries–The Future
Source: Wall Street Journal 3/12/2001
“Writing a New Chapter”
Mentions: Alexa Internet
San Francisco Public Library
Digital Library Initiative
Net Library
Ebrary
Questia