Drug Trials–United States–Database
Invisible Web
New Database: Drug Trials Info from Acurian
From the announcement, “Drug Knowledge Center (DKC), a set of comprehensive databases providing accurate, consumer-friendly information about drugs in all stages of development. This new resource complements Acurian’s existing clinical trial listings from both the government and private sectors, the most extensive trial listings currently available online, and the site’s quality editorial content from sources like Johns Hopkins, The FDC Reports and Engel Publishing. Visitors to Acurian’s Drug Knowledge Center can search for medications currently being evaluated in U.S. clinical trials, as well as for drugs already available in the U.S.”
See Also: Direct to the Database

Stamps–Database–Canada
Invisible Web
New Database: Philatis, Canadian Postage Stamps
From the site, “This search engine provides documentary information on nearly 2,300 stamps released by Canada and British North America and approximately 35,000 individual descriptions of documents. It also allows on-line consultation of more than 5,000 digitized documents. The number of these documents is expected to increase regularly.”
See Also: Canadian Postal Archives

Government Contractors–United States–Lists and Rankings
Source: Government Executive
Top U.S. Government Contractors
Numerous lists and rankings available. They include:
Top 100 Defense Contractors
Top 100 Civilian Agency Contractors
Top Information Technology Contractors
Top Travel Vendors
Top Government Purchasers
Top Contract Categories

Business–Books
The Full-Text of Business Books, Search/Browse/Read Online for Free
From Ebrary.Inc. You will need to download a small app. To print, you’ll be charged a small fee. Content from Random House, McGraw-Hill, Pearson plc, Taylor & Francis, Cambridge University Press, MIT Press, Yale University Press, and others.

Professional Reading–Web Search (2 Articles)
Source: First Monday
“What Next for Internet Journals? Implications of the Trend Towards Paid Placement in Search Engines”
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“Can Navigational Assistance Improve Search Experience? A User Study”

Conference Report–Joint Conference on Digital Libraries
Source: Information Today
ACM and IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries
Peter Jacso reports on the conference held June 24-28th in Roanoke, Va.

Full-Text Document Shelf (5 Items)
Demographics–Global
Politics
Source: CIA
Long-Term Global Demographic Trends: Reshaping the Geopolitical Landscape
100 pages .pdf
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Eletricity Industry–United States
Source: EIA
Electric Power Annual 2000 Volume I
70 pages .pdf
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Criminal Justice–United States
Jails–United States
Source: BJS
Census of Jails 1999
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Labor–International
Manufacturing–International
Source: BLS
International Comparisons of Manufacturing Productivity and Unit Labor Cost
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Global Health
Source: GAO
Global Health: Challenges in Improving Infectious Disease Surveillance Systems
74 pages .pdf

Internet Usage–Students
Research Skills–Students
“Internet Replacing Libraries for Homework”
Source: Reuters
From the article, “For a majority of U.S. teenagers, ”homework” is finally living up to its name. Thanks to the Internet, research projects and other school assignments are being completed at home, on-line, replacing last-minute trips to the library, according to a study released Saturday. Seventy-one percent of middle school and high school students with Internet access said they relied on the electronic technology the most in completing a project, according to a survey conducted by the Pew Internet and American Life Project. That compares to 24 percent who said they relied on libraries the most, according to the survey. Of students aged 12-17, the Pew study found that 73 percent, or 17 million children, have Internet access. The Pew study surveyed 754 of those students. The Pew study quoted one 15-year-old boy, who said, ”Without the Internet, you need to go to the library and walk around looking for books. In today’s world, you can just go home and get into the Internet and type in your search term.”
See Also: Direct to the Complete Study. Includes Full-text, Charts, Methodology, etc.
See Also: “For Some, Net Puts Library on Shelf” from Dallas Morning News

Chemistry
New From CAS: Science Spotlight
A new free service. From the site, “CAS Science Spotlight identifies the most highly cited and requested chemistry-related research publications as reflected by the citations found in the 8000 journals covered by CAS and the full-text documents requested by scientists through the ChemPort Connection.”

Web Search
Source: NY Times
Push a Button, Get An Answer
The following appears in an NYT article about using the web to find and access travel info. “Prospective travelers often perform a perfunctory search or two and are disappointed. “People think with the Internet, you push a button and get an answer,” says Marcia Osofsky, a librarian at the New York Public Library telephone reference desk. Kudos to Marcia for the on-target comment. The article goes on to share a few search techniques.
Note: The article mentions that the use of a * as a truncation symbol/wildcard is a good technique to employ when searching the web. Yes, this is often true. However, not every search engine offers the use of these symbols. Search Engine Showdown is the place to quickly find out which engines do and do not offer this feature.

Fee vs. Free
Source: Knowledge@Wharton via News.Com
“Net Ads: The Buck Starts Here”
From the article, David Croson, Wharton professor of operations and information management, predicts that clever consumers will surf around until they find ways to slip past information tollbooths. “They�re going to find another way to get the information that is almost as good and still free,” says Croson. “It�s the uninformed who are paying.”
The free information will still be out there, note both [Wharton marketing professor David J.] Reibstein and Croson, because even though companies are beginning to charge for some of their information, they will still wrap it around free content aimed at maintaining at least some of the remaining advertising and sponsorship revenue.”
Comment: The big question is the quality of the free information. Just because you find a site does not make the info is provides worthwhile and usable. This must be stressed to consumers. Nevertheless, a great deal of high quality material that happens to be free DOES exist online. We will continue to do our best to share our finds with you.

Business–Searchable Databases
Invisible Web
No More Free Content: 10K Wizard Becomes A Fee-Based Service
Today, 10K Wizard, a robust database providing SEC EDGAR filings, announced that it’s moving to a fee-based model as of September 1st.
Details from company home page
Cost: $125/year exceptions: students/educators & journalists
Students, teachers, and journalists can go to these urls to register for free access to the site:
Students/educators: http://www.10kwizard.com/accounts.php?type=stu&g=
Journalists: http://www.10kwizard.com/accounts.php?type=jou&g=
According to the 10K Wizard site, enterprise accounts will be available for organizations with twenty or more users. No word if library pricing will be available. More later.

Web Sites–The White House
An Improved White House Site Is Now Online
Better search services. They’re using the Inktomi/Ultraseek server.
Some limit syntax is available to limit your search.
Boolean is also available but it must be entered in upper case, AND, OR, NOT.

Racism–World Conference against Racism
United Nations–Streaming Media Coverage
World Conference against Racism–Aug. 28, 2001 – Sept. 7, 2001–Durban, South Africa
Live Coverage in English (via UN TV)
Site contains other resources including press releases, list of speakers, etc.
See Also: Official Conference Site
See Also: Watch/Listen To Speeches and Other Events from the Conference (via SABC)