Current Awareness Tools–Patents
Current Awareness Tools–Medicine
An article by Chris Sherman in his SearchDay newsletter alerts us to Patent Alert, a new tool (free) that will automatically run your search strategies (pre-defined searches are also available) against the USPTO Patent Database and return newly added material to you via e-mail. Today, allow me to bring PubCrawler to your attention. It provides the same type of service, also free, except it automatically searches for new material in the medical/health world by running your search strategies against the Pubmed/Medline database.
Direct to Patent Alert
Direct to PubCrawler

Web Search
Source: Dow Jones Newswires via Business.Com
“Goto.com CEO: Consumer Group Charges Are Off Mark”
It’s important to realize that the wants, needs, and desires of web search industry and those who use the open web as a research tool are sometimes, but not always, the same. The two major camps at the present time are those who use web search as an advertising, promotion type of vehicle. The other, those of us who use the “open web” as one of many research tools available to us. Can and do the two worlds bump against each other? Yes. Can the two worlds exist together? Absolutely! However, it will require those of us in the information research world to be armed with a thorough knowledge of how the engines work, how they differ, what they can and can’t do, and how to fully exploit their advanced search capabilities. From the article, “Speaking at the Jupiter Media Metrix Inc. Online Advertising Forum in New York Wednesday, [Ted] Meisel [GoTo.com CEO] said it isn’t important whether search engines tell users which listings have been paid for by advertisers. The important thing is that the results are relevant, he said. If they aren’t, consumers will move on to other search engines, regardless of whether the listings are paid for or compiled by editorial workers. “Users don’t care how they’re made,” Meisel said. “Most search is influenced by payments in one form or another.” I would be curious what AllTheWeb, Google, and WiseNut would have to say.
See Also: I will be speaking, along with many others, at WebSearch University here in D.C. Sessions will cover power searching with the general web search tools, taking advantage of the Invisible Web, and maximizing the value of several fee-based services.

Web Directories–Government Information
Meta-Subject Index to Government Information
From the site, “This index is intended to direct the user to Subject Indexes which have been created for the purpose of identifying government internet resources in a given subject area. This index currently contains 13,131 entries.” Some of the subject directories used to build this “meta” index come from the National Library of Canada, Univ. of Michigan’s Document Center, and the Yale University Government Documents Center. Kudos to Stephen Woods at Idaho St. University.

Web Resources–Legal
Source: Chicago Tribune
New: American Bar Association Launches Consumer Oriented Site
From the article, “There are other sites that provide some of what we offer on a piecemeal basis,” [ABA President] [Robert] Hirshon said Friday. “We felt there ought to be a centralized location for one-stop shopping for people looking for legal information.”
Direct to the New ABA Consumer Site
Thanks to G.T. for the tip.

Census 2000–United States
Demographics–United States
Additional Summary File 1 (Detailed Demographic Info, by State) Now Available
New This Week: California, Puerto Rico, South Dakota
Next Week: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, Wisconsin

Full-Text Document and Resource Shelf (6 Resources)
Elections–Canada
Parliament–Canada
Source: Elections Canada
List of Members of Parliament by Province and Territory
Breakdown of Election Expenses of Registered Political Parties � 2000 General Election
Election Expenses and Reimbursements, by Registered Political Party � 2000 General Election
Statements of Assets and Liabilities � 2000 Fiscal Period
Political Parties� Fiscal Period Returns for 2000 (Searchable Database)
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Economics–Regional–United States
Labor–Technology Workforce–United States
Source: Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs/University of Minnesota
High-Tech and I-Tech: How Metros Rank and Specialize
See Also: An article from the Washington Post about the report.
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Labor–United States
Source: BLS
Unemployment–United States
Geographic Profile of Employment and Unemployment, 1999
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Legal–Microsoft
Documents in the News
Microsoft Petitions U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Case
Full-Text of Brief (Writ of Certiorari)
Full-Text of Microsoft’s Motion for Stay of the Mandate Pending Petition for Writ of Certiorari
–U.S. v. Microsoft – Appellees’ Response to Microsoft’s Motion for Stay of the Mandate Pending Petition for Writ of Certiorari (8/10/2001)

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