Info Industry–Questia
“A solid future for Questia Media is still an online question mark”
Source: Houston Chronicle
Key graph, “The developer of an online service designed to help students write better research papers will be deep into a revamped marketing campaign designed to overcome a simple fact: After nearly three years, more than $110 million in spent venture capital and the building of a 300-person staff, the company still boasts fewer than 1,000 paying subscribers.”
Thanks to P.E. for the news tip and R.L. for the link.

Web Standards-UDDI
UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Intergration) Directory Ready To Debut
If you haven’t read about this new standard, you will. Although it’s slated (first deployment) to be used as a standard for a web based business directory, those of us in the info profession need to keep close track of it.
From the IT World article, “The Universal Description, Discovery and Integration (UDDI) registry promises to make it easier for businesses to provide information about their products and services on the Web, as well as locate partners and customers. A number of registries that use differing protocols exist on the Web already, but Microsoft, IBM and Ariba said they want to promote a common, shared set of identifiers. Companies can submit information about their businesses to the registry free of charge, the vendors say.”
To learn more about UDDI, this “official page” is a good place to begin.

Search Engine News-Fast Search & Transfer
Layoffs at Fast (Alltheweb.Com)
Pandia reports that 30 to 40 employees were let go. Thomas Fussell, a member of the Fast Search & Transfer Board is under the gun for a quote to a Norwegian news site calling some of these employees “complete idiots”. Fussell says that if the quote “passed my lips”, I did not mean it.”…Thanks to S.C. for the news tip.

Maps–United States–Fee Based
New U.S.A. Map From USGS
Those of you with a need for a general purpose map of the U.S. may find this new map ($7) of use. It was produced the the United States Geological Survey.

Online Investing Tools–Calculators
The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) Introduces Margin Calculator
From the Press Release, “…help[s] individual investors estimate their likelihood-based on their actual holdings-of getting a dreaded margin call in the next thirty days, three months, or year.”
Full-Text of Press Release

China-U.S. Relations
International Relations
New Web Site: U.S.-China Security Review Commission
From the site, “…assigned task of analyzing the national security implications of trade and economic ties between the United States and the Peoples Republic of China.”

United States House of Representatives
Hinds’ Precedents of the House of Representatives is Now Available Online
The site is part of GPO Access.

Energy–United States
Electricity Industry–Legislation–United States
Source: EIA
Electric Industry Federal Restructuring Legislation
From the site, “This site presents the purpose and summary of all federal legislative proposals before the current Congress that deal directly and indirectly with the issue of restructuring the U. S. electric power industry.”
See Also: The EIA has also updated the USA Country Analysis Brief (Enegy Statistics and Overview)

Full-Text Document Shelf (3 Items)
New Economy–United States
The Metropolitan New Economy Index
From a Civic.Com article about the study, “The Metropolitan New Economy Index (available at www.neweconomyindex.org) ranked the country�s top 50 metropolitan regions with populations of 50,000 or more. The study was conducted jointly by the Progressive Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank affiliated with the Democratic Leadership Council, and Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.”
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Research & Development–United States
Science and Engineering–United States
Government Funding–United States
Academic Institution Profiles
From the site, “These Profiles present institution-level information about R&D expenditures, Federal science and engineering (S&E) obligations, and S&E graduate students and postdoctorates for individual doctorate-granting institutions and schools with S&E departments that grant master’s degrees. Data derive from the following three annual surveys: the Survey of Federal Science and Engineering Support to Universities, Colleges, and Nonprofit Institutions; the Survey of Academic Research and Development Expenditures; and the Survey of Graduate Students and Postdoctorates in Science and Engineering.”
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Nursing–United States
Patient Outcomes–United States
Nurse Staffing and Patient Outcomes in Hospitals
Source: Health Resources and Services Administration
Executive Summary Also Available

Canada–Libraries
National Library of Canada Site Redesigned
Today, the NLC announced a redesign of its site.

Patents–United States
Lists and Rankings
The Technology Review Patent Scorecard 2001
Source: MIT Technology Review
The list ranks 150 of the world’s top companies “according to the quality and quantity of their patents”. Also of interest is the TR “5 Patents To Watch” article. The “Distributed Computing” patent from IBM is very interesting.

Future Search
P2P Searching
“OpenCola�Have Some Code and a Smile”
Source: MIT Technology Review
Learn about this distributed search technology and the soft drink used to promo the company.

Interesting Read
“Search Technology Finds Its Way Into the Enterprise”
Source: Computerworld
The article discusses the importance of creating taxonomies. This is something info types have been doing for a LONG time.

E-Journals–Library Science
New Peer Reviewed E-Journal: Transforming Traditional Libraries
Volume One, Number One is online. From the site, “Transforming Traditional Libraries is a peer-reviewed e-journal covering aspects of the new library, including digital collections, electronic indices, OPACs, Internet research, bibliographic instruction, information literacy, and the task of integrating these and other new resources with the traditional services of the library.”

Canada–Books
Happy Canada Book Day!

Web Tools–Adobe Acrobat
Version 5.0 of Adobe Acrobat is Now Online.
Details and download instructions are available.

Video Search–CNN
History–Video Search–CNN
“CNN Video Archives to Become Digital Database”
“Sony and I.B.M. plan to announce a new system today that will convert the 115,000 hours of videotape that CNN, a unit of AOL Time Warner, has collected the last 21 years, creating a computerized database that will make it easier to find, retrieve and distribute news clips.” Thanks to GT for the update.

Rich List–World
Rich List–United Kingdom
The Sunday Times Rich List 2001
Several lists including Richest in World, U.K., Canada, and Australia

Census 2000–Search Tools
Invisible Web Databases
Search American Factfinder By Address for Census 2000 Data
Grace York, Coordinator of the Documents Center at the University of Michigan, reports that you can now search Factfinder for Census 2000 info by place name or address. Access via a list or map is also available.

Online Directories–Telephone
Phone search site adds fees for heavy users
Story lead, “Faced with falling ad revenue, online telephone directory service 555-1212.com Inc. is now charging monthly fees, starting at $9.95 for heavy users.”