Web Search–Northern Light
Happy Birthday Northern Light!
Today NL celebrates its sixth birthday with news of 20 million dollars in financing and a new Chairman of the Board, Gregory Whitten. Whitten is a former Chief Software Architect at Microsoft. In addition to NL having one of the larger web databases, they also provide a very useful database of content from 56 newswires. This content is free to search and use for 2 weeks after publication. Material is added to the database as is moves on the various wire services. Northern Light’s Alert service is, in my opinion, one of the most useful free services on the web. Finally, NL has just released another of it’s subject focused “Special Editions”. The new compilation focuses on Enterprise Information Portals.

Web Search–Google
Source: SearchDay
Google To Make Even More Formats Accessible
Word from Chris Sherman that Google will soon crawl and make even more formats accessible via their engine. Presently, Google is the only engine to crawl and index .pdf material. From Chris’s article, “The new file types indexed by Google include Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint formats, as well as Rich Text Format and PostScript files, according to Google spokesperson Cindy McCaffrey. Search engines traditionally have snubbed these file types in favor of those in the far more common HTML format, which is widely accepted as the universal standard for web pages.” According to the article most of the new indexing will be accessible by next week. Some is already online. Google Tip: To limit your search using to a specific filetype, use the syntax filetype:. For example, to limit your search to pdf material the query is filetype:pdf

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources and Documents (2 Items)
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Government–United Kingdom
Full-Text
Source: House Of Parliament Library
Research Paper-House of Lords Reform: Developments Since 1997
55 pages .pdf
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Violence–United States–Statistics
Full-Text
Source: BJS
Intimate Partner Violence and Age of Victim
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Report
12 pages .pdf

Web Search–U.S. Government Information
Source: Government Printing Office
New Search Evaluation Report Available
From an e-mail message, “One of the most popular ways in which users find the resources available via GPO Access is through major Internet search engines and directories. Therefore, GPO is involved in an ongoing effort to improve the visibility of GPO Access pages in major search engines and directories. The Seventh Evaluation of the on-going Search Engine Project is now available on the Federal Bulletin Board.
Direct to Executive Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text of Report
See Also: Supporting Materials and Older Reports

Online Information–LexisNexis
Natural Language Technology
LexisNexis and iPhrase Deliver Natural Language Search Interface for Selected Products
LN plans to integrate iPhrase�s One Step� natural language interface into LexisNexis� Advertising Red Books� and Directory of Corporate Affiliations�.
See Also: Direct to iPhrase Web Site (Demos Available)

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (5 Items)
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R&D–United States–Lists
Master Government List of 36 Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (NSF 02-302)
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Science & Engineering–Statistics
Education–United States
Source: National Science Foundation
Science and Engineering Doctorate Awards: 2000
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Publications–Canada
Source: Government of Canada
160 Years of the Canada Gazette
From the site, “160 Years of the Canada Gazette commemorates the 160th anniversary of the Canada Gazette. The first part tells a story of a publication that is as much a part of the growth of a nation as it is an historical account of Canada�s official newspaper.”
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History–Canada
Source: Government of Canada
Guide to Canadian Ministries Since Confederation
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Emergency Shelters–United States
Source: U.S. Census
Emergency and Transitional Shelter Population: 2000
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Document
24 pages .pdf

Professional Reading Shelf
Two Articles from Technology Review
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“Digital Preservation”
The article discusses a Council on Library and Information Resources project. From the article, “Increasingly, the record of our civilization is becoming digital, from census data to family photos. The Library of Congress alone has 35 terabytes of files. Yet rapid changes in computers and software could render this data unreadable.”
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“A Smarter Web”
Another good primer about the Semantic Web

Web Search–Streaming Content
Source: AP
Learn about SingingFish and Friskit
From the article, “In a sunny San Francisco loft, a tiny company called Friskit Inc. has spent the last two years honing a search engine that scans the Internet for songs and music videos available to Web surfers for free but often difficult to locate.”
Direct to Friskit
Direct to SingingFish.Com

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (2 Items)
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New and Updated Congressional Research Material On the Web
These reports can’t be accessed directly. To access:
1) Go To Cong. Chris Shay’s CRS Page or Cong. Mark Green’s CRS Page
2) Once on the Page, Note the Four Types of Reports. Then Locate the Following Reports By Clicking on The Appropriate Section
Issue Briefs
Egypt-United States Relations
17 pages
Updated 10/1
Iraq-U.S. Confrontation
19 pages
Updated 10/15
Israeli-U.S. Relations
17 pages
Updated 10/1
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Short Reports
War Bonds in the Second World War: A Model for a New War Bond?
6 pages
10/12
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Long Reports
Internet Tax Bills in the 107th Congress: A Brief Comparison
12 pages
Updated 10/15
Using Business Tax Cuts to Stimulate the Economy
15 pages
Updated 10/15
All Reports are .pdf files

Economic Statistics–United States
Census Brief: Hispanic-Owned Businesses: 1997
Census Brief: Asian- and Pacific Islander-Owned Businesses: 1997
1997 Economic Census ZIP Code Statistics

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources
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Energy–Glossary
Source: Energy Information Agency
EIA Energy Definitions Glossary

Web Search–Google
Source: News.Com
Google Evaluates Subscription Options”
I’ve thought for some time that if Google would offer added search functionality, frequent recrawls, deeper crawls and additional added features many info pros would be willing to pay for it. According to this article the Google folks are considering this concept. From the article, “Google is considering creating subscription versions of its popular search engine that could target academic and corporate clients, a source said Thursday. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company is evaluating new “vertical markets” as a means of increasing revenues, according to a source within the company. Among the considerations are new niche searches for periodicals, medical information or technology that Web surfers or companies would pay to use.”

Web Archives
The Debut of a Major New Web Tool: The Internet Archive Wayback Machine
Can you say EXCITING! I’m on my way to check it out. More later. From the announcement, “The Internet Archive, a comprehensive library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts in digital form, today launched the Wayback Machine, a free service allowing people to access and use archived versions of past web pages. For the first time, all members of the public will be able to search and view the Internet Archive’s enormous collection of web sites, dating back to 1996 and comprising over 10 billion web pages.”
The Wayback Machine also has an “Advanced Search“ interface.
The Internet Archive is also home to a few special collections:
*The September 11, 2001 Collection
*The United States Government Collection
*The Election 2001 Collection
*Web Pioneers Collection
Examples: Here are the Entries and Links in The Wayback Machine for this Weblog
You’ll see the site has been visited 4 times.
Examples: Here are the entries and links for Library of Congress homepage.
Some pages back to 1996 are available.
See Also: Learn Much More About the Wayback Machine

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (2 Items)
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9/11 Attacks
NYC Environment
Source: EPA
Access to Daily Environmental Monitoring of NYC, WTC, and Pentagon Areas
Access table tables and background info.
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Biodeversity–Database
Source: Expert Center for Taxonomic Identification (Netherlands)
World Biodiversity Database
From the site, “ETI’s World Biodiversity Database is a continuously growing taxonomic database and information system that aims at documenting all presently known species (about 1.7 million) and to make this important biological information worldwide accessible. Access to this online information system is free of charge for noncommercial use: scientific and educational purposes.”

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (5 Items)
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Bibliographic Databases
Invisible Web
Index Translationum on the Web, Over 1.3 Millions Citations Now Searchable
UNESCO is providing free web access to this cumulative index over 1.3 million citations of books translated and published in about 100 UNESCO member states. Coverage for this database begins in 1979. From the site, “Librarians, documentalists, researchers, publishers, journalists, translators, students, book shops, all consult the Index Translationum to find out if an author has been translated, into what language and by whom. Furthermore, the Index is the best reference work for establishing statistics concerning translations, allowing specialists to analyse international readership and publishing markets according to their needs. It is a huge storehouse of information from which we can determine trends such as: changes in the tastes of the international reading public, the most frequently translated authors, the influence of certain languages over others, reciprocal influences or subject preferences at regional or international levels.”
Direct to the Index Translationum Search Interface
Learn More About the Index
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Professional Reading
Libraries–Australia
Library Users
Full-Text
“Changing Expectations: Identifying and Responding to the Needs of Users in the National Library of Australia”
Written and presented at a recent conference by two NLA staff members. From the abstract, “Growth in Internet usage, a continuing increase and availability of electronic resources and changes to the delivery of information continue to have a huge impact on libraries and the expectations of our users. There are both similarities and diffferences in the provision of reference and the delivery of information to onsite and offsite users. The National Library has recently undertaken three focus groups of onsite users and in 2001 will undertake a survey of our remote users in an effort to identify the changing needs and expectations of library users in the digital age. A change from mediated reference involving personal interaction between librarian and user is being supplemented and in some cases replaced by unmediated reference through the provision of guides, subject gateways and online catalogues. It would seem that one thing is certain - users are becoming ever more demanding of libraries to provide electronic resources, in full text, at no cost and with no wait.” Make sure to take a look at the excellent bibliography.

United States Census
Demographics–United States
Full-Text
Source: U.S. Census
Several New Full-Text Documents Now Available Online
Here are the links to eight new documents. All are .pdf files.
Census Brief, American Indian and Alaska Native-Owned Businesses: 1997
Census 2000, The American Indian Population: 2000
Census 2000, The Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander Population: 2000
Census 2000: The Black Population
Census 2000, The Asian Population: 2000
Census 2000, The White Population: 2000
Census 2000, The Hispanic Population: 2000
Finding Census Data Locally, State Data Center Program
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Genealogy–Canada
Full-Text
Source: National Archives of Canada
Tracing Your Ancestors in Canada (2001 ed.)
30 pages .pdf
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History–Canada
Online Exhibits
New From National Archives of Canada: The Canadian West
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United States History
President John F. Kennedy
Kennedy Library Releases More White House Recordings
From the 10/24/01 news release, “On what marks the 39th anniversary of the imposition of a U.S. naval quarantine of Cuba in response to the Soviet Union�s introduction of nuclear missiles on the island, the John F. Kennedy Library today released a White House tape recording of the deliberations surrounding President Kennedy�s decision to lift that quarantine.” This page contains a 13 minute excerpt of the tape which can be heard using RealAudio.
See Also: Listen To A 58 second excerpt from a 1961 speech, JFK defines terrorism
See Also: Listen to more JFK and RFK speeches

Medical & Health Databases–Medline
Happy Birthday to Medline!
Medline turns 30 years old in this month. From the NLM News in October 1971: “Each user of the service will pay for his own terminal and telephone costs. The system will be accessible by teletype, TWX, IBM 2741, and other terminals operating at 100, 148, or 300 words per minute�The institution will be required to send at least one person for training in the use of the system, and further, to provide bibliographic services to health professionals beyond their normal service responsibilities.”…By 1972, the system was already expanding. Its database included 400,000 citations from 1,100 of the leading journals. The communications network began to provide toll-free telephone access in about 35 cities which all connected to NLM’s new IBM 370/155 computer. Make sure to read the entire news release, fascinating and informative.

Web Search
Pay-For-Placement Search Engines
Source: Wall Street Journal
“Some Search Services Rethink Web Results for Cipro Seekers”
From the article, “The zooming public interest in the drug, coupled with a lack of clear-cut industry-wide standards on providing paid or free links to Web sites, has left each site scrambling to formulate a policy on Cipro searches. Some are blocking ads for stores selling Cipro without prescriptions, while others are adopting a wait-and-see policy.” “Most sites allow advertisers to place ads on results pages for specific keyword searches, and it is these ads that often link to Cipro stores. Now that the FDA is crackingdown on Cipro sellers, sites are rethinking the pay-for-placement links, in some cases. Thanks to G.T. for the news tip.

Web Search–Spiders, Crawlers, and Robots
Sherman and Spiders
In his SearchDay newsletter, our friend and co-author Chris Sherman, writes a great article with an impressive list of resources about web spiders, crawlers, and robots. In a nutshell, spiders are the tools that most web search engines use to gather material for their databases. A must read for those of you who want to learn about how and why search engines work.

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (4 Items)
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Afghanistan
Area Studies
Now Online from the Library of Congress: Afghanistan - A Country Study
Copyright 1997. Searchable
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United States Postal Service–Searchable Databases
Invisible Web
Not Just Zip Codes
Along with to the frequently used Zip Code Look-up the USPS provides access to several searchable tools.
* United States Postal Inspection Service Office Finder
* Postmaster Finder
Links to the following databases, several contain historical data:
Postmasters by City
Postmasters and Where They Served
Post Offices by County
Post Offices by State
Post Offices by Established Date
Post Offices by Discontinued Date
Post Offices by ZIP Code
* Post Office Locator
* Domestic Mail Calculator
* International Mail Calculator
* Consumer Affairs Office Locator
* Business Service Network Locator
* Business Mail Entry Locator
* Zip Code City/State Associations
Finally, .pdf glossary: Glossary of Postal Terms
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Scholarly Publishing–Bibliography
Version 39 of Bailey’s Scholarly Electronic Publishing Bibliography is Now Available
The bib currently contains, “over 1,450 articles, books, and other printed and electronic sources that are useful in understanding scholarly electronic publishing efforts on the Internet.”
Available in HTML, .pdf, or .doc formats.
Note: The HTML version contains 3 sections not available in .pdf or .doc formats and can be keyword searched.
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Securities Industry–United States
Full-Text Document
Source: GAO
Anti-Money Laundering: Efforts in the Securities Industry
92 pages .pdf, Appendix IV contains a chart of major cases.

Business Information Research
NY Public Library Offers Web-Based “Prospecting for Business Information” Course
Exciting!!! The NYPL is teaming up with WNET (a NYC public television station) and Fathom (a web-based education provider) to offer a 3-5 class of using business information resources. Here is how the NYPL describes the class, “This interactive course draws upon the expertise of the staff at The New York Public Library’s Science, Industry and Business Library to educate users about offline and online sources of company information and to demonstrate how to conduct company research. Participants in the course gain privileged access to company information for one month from popular online databases such as infoUSA’s ReferenceUSA, LexisNexis’s nexis.com, and Standard & Poor’s NetAdvantage. The Prospecting for Business Information course is available on an introductory basis for an enrollment fee of $20 and can be accessed anytime over a one-month period.”
Direct to: “Prospecting for Business Information” Course (includes objectives, syllabus, & video preview.

Web Search–Google
Source: Business Week
“The Keyword at Google: Growth”
What would a week be without a Google story. From the article, “In the big-money enterprise market of providing Web and site search capabilities to big companies, Google is apparently struggling. By some estimates, for every single document on the Internet, corporations have two more floating around in their internal networks. While Google has a handful of marquee customers, including Sony and Cisco, the roster pales in comparison with search veterans Verity and Inktomi, which have 1,800 and 2,500 corporate customers, respectively.”

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items)
Victims of Crime
U.S. DOJ–Office of Justice Programs
National Directory of Victim Assistance Funding Opportunities 2001
From the site, “This directory lists, by state and territory, the contact names, mailing addresses, telephone numbers, and e-mail addressed for the federal grant programs that provide assistance to crime victims. The directory also includes information on grant programs that assist state and local agencies to prepare for and respond to incidents of domestic terrorism and criminal mass casualty.”
224 pages .pdf
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U.S. Department of State
Stay Current With New Material On U.S. Department of State Site
A new service. From the site, When viewed on a daily basis, it gives a running update of the Department’s releases on www.state.gov (other .state.gov sites are not included). The system scouts the site for new documents every half hour and immediately posts new links on the page at http://www.state.gov/whats_new.cfm where they are displayed for at least 24 hours.
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Charities–9/11 Attacks
Source: Newsbytes
New York Attorney General Launches Clearinghouse of Charities
From the article, “[a] clearinghouse of information for donors and victims and to help ensure that charitable donations are being distributed equitably to all of the victims of the New York attack…” “Included side-by-side on the site with links to various Sept. 11 charities are links to GuideStar.org database listings for the organizations. GuideStar claims to list more than 850,000 U.S. nonprofit groups in its database, which includes contact information, brief descriptions of the groups’ activities, as well as some financial data.”
Direct to the Clearinghouse of Charities

Web Search–AltaVista
Source: IDG News
“AltaVista Serves Up Outdated Searches”
As always, caveat emptor! AltaVista’s outdated index gets attention from the mainstream IT press. Not good news for the its ailing parent company, CMGI. From the article,
AltaVista’s search engine is dishing up months-old results to queries. Its search index hasn’t been updated since July, so changes made to indexed pages since then aren’t recorded and new pages linked to indexed pages aren’t reported. “A full refresh has not been done since July,” says AltaVista spokesperson Kristi Kaspar. “We have crawled, but we have yet to publish the results. Pretty much everybody is working on it, it is our number one priority.”…AltaVista’s regional search sites have not been updated since mid-April. The company said in late August that it was merging the index behind its regional sites with the international index. The process was scheduled to be completed by late September, but the regional indexes have still not been updated. “We hit a glitch adding the international databases,” says Kaspar. Comment: All of this is sad because the underlying AV technology can be a very powerful tool in the hands of a competent searcher. More to come.

Archives–Canada
Source: National Archives of Canada
“Making Canada�s Past Accessible”
Read the full-text of a speech given on October 20th by Ian E. Wilson, National Archivist of Canada.
From the speech, “We are all in the information business. Our greatest skill is in knowing how to turn information into knowledge. This intellectual alchemy is a process without which our history would be incomprehensible and patternless � some accidental or arbitrary alignment of time and opportunity, people and place.”

Medical Librarians–United States
Happy Medical Librarians Month!
A big tip o’ the VAS&ND hat to all of our medical librarian visitors. This compilation, created at the National Library of Medicine, highlights only a few of the noteworthy web-based projects being developed by medical librarians throughout the USA.

Web Search–Image Databases–Australia
Source: National Library of Australia
The NLA Images 1 Database is Now Part of the Pictures Catalogue
From the site, “The National Library’s Images 1 service has been replaced by an expanded Pictures Catalogue that brings together in a single database: all the online images and catalogue records that were in Images1; and the catalogue records for pictures that are yet to be digitised.

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items)
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Crime–United States–Statistics
Source: FBI
Crime in the United States - 2000
Released this morning.
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Anthrax–Video Conference
Source: Centers for Disease Control
Anthrax - What Every Clinician Should Know
Last week (10/22), the CDC hosted a teleconference/webcast for medical professionals to answer questions about anthrax. The University of North Carolina School of Public Health is making the archived webcast (RealVideo) available.
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Education–ERIC Digests
Here are a few new ERIC Digests released over the last week.
Children and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder: What Teachers Should Know
Proof of the Power: Recent Research on the Impact of School Library Media Programs on the Academic Achievement of U.S. Public School Students
Libraries in Today�s Digital Age: The Copyright Controversy
Uncovering the Hidden Web, Part I: Finding What the Search Engines Don�t
Uncovering the Hidden Web, Part II: Resources for Your Classroom

Web Tools–Translation
Worth A Look: SYSTRANET
A bunch of free services, fast and painless sign-up procedure, including the option to translate text you input OR material from a web page, .rtf file, or .txt file located on your hard drive. About 20 language pair combinations to choose from. Subject specific dictionaries are available for over 20 areas including economics, legal, and medical. Systran, is a well-known provider of machine translation technology and has completed projects for many organizations including the U.S. Department of Defense. Bottom Line: Useful but be aware of the many issues (accuracy, precision, etc.) with machine translation.

Information Industry
Information Today Acquires Online Magazine
From the news release, Jeff Pemberton, Chairman of Online, Inc., said �We closed the sale of Online to Information Today with a great sense of accomplishment and confidence that the magazine is in good hands. Changing times require new business strategies to take advantage of opportunities, but our roots are deep, and electronic content and information professionals will continue to be a major part of our mission and our audience.� Great news: Marydee Ojala will remain as Online editor.

Out-of-Print Books–Searchable Databases
Info Industry–OCLC
Alibris (Out-of-Print Book Service) & OCLC Collaborate In New Venture
This is a novel and exciting concept. From the news release, “Alibris and OCLC will provide comprehensive links between the Alibris Library Services Web site, www.alibris.com/library, and OCLC’s WorldCat database. Libraries that subscribe to WorldCat through the OCLC FirstSearch service, an online reference service, will have the option to link to Alibris where they’ll find millions of out-of-print, out-of-stock, and rare books for sale. In addition, Alibris customers who cannot find the book they are looking for on the Alibris Library Services Web site will have the option to check WorldCat holdings for the item to determine whether it is available at a nearby library. WorldCat contains more than 820 million location listings for over 48 million unique bibliographic records representing books and other items in library collections worldwide.
Direct to Alibris Library Interface
Direct to Alibris Consumer Page

Info Industry–netLibrary
Source: The Chronicle of Higher Education
Money Issues, More About NetLibrary
This weblog had an early story about netLibrary’s financial problems. Today, more from TCHE. From the article, “Librarians weren’t born yesterday with this digital stuff,” said Dennis J. Dillon, assistant director for collections and information resources at the University of Texas at Austin. “When a new company comes around, you want some guarantees. You don’t just give them money and put all that money at risk.” For that reason, Mr. Dillon said, his university’s contract with netLibrary includes a clause that essentially promises that if the company ceases operations, the university will be given the data files for the electronic books that it bought lifetime electronic access to, as well as software so that the university can continue to make the e-books available on its own. Other libraries apparently made similar arrangements with the company. “What that means in reality I don’t want to find out,” said Mr. Dillon.

Library of Congress
Library of Congress Temporarily Closes Buildings, Precautionary Move
From the news release, “All Library of Congress buildings will be closed to the public and staff beginning Thursday, October 18 until such time as testing of the air supply systems is completed by the Centers for Disease Control. Although there is no evidence of the anthrax bacteria in any part of the Library of Congress, the buildings are being closed as a precautionary measure. These tests are being conducted on all Capitol Hill complex buildings. Library officials are estimating that the Library will reopen on Tuesday, October 23. Please check the Web site at www.loc.gov/today or the recording at (202) 707-5000 for updated information.”

Web Search–Google
Source: Wired (Vol. 9 No. 10)
“I’m Feeling Lucky”
More on how Google “does it”. From the article, “Behind the anti-corporate facade, Google is in fact a company - even worse, a venture-backed company - and these days that means it must find a route to profitability fast or risk failure. Given that its far more commercial competitors, from AltaVista to Ask Jeeves, have been unable to come close to positive territory (the one moneymaker, Yahoo!, started as a directory), Google’s prospects might seem bleak. Yet the reality is that behind the scenes, the company is becoming a commercial powerhouse - and, says Google’s newly named CEO Eric Schmidt, it’s now squarely in the black.”

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (5 Items)
Maps–World
Quick Maps of the World From MultiMap
MulitMap is a well-know London based provider of online maps and interactive direction tools. In addition to the maps and direction tools they provide for the UK and other European nations MultiMap also provides access to maps of the rest of the World with some impressive detail for on online mapping tool. Begin by selecting a country from the pull-down menu, pointing to the region on a map, or entering the country/place/region name. For example, I entered Kabul into the search box. After selecting exactly what I wanted from a list, I was presented a map at a scale of 1:1,000,000. The map shows the major roads and towns surrounding the city. Multimap also allows you to zoom in to a scale 1:200,000. Click the printer-friendly button and most of the material surrounding the map disappears. Btw, the driving direction and local info material is not available for all countries. Finally, some maps have a greater level of detail than others do.
See Also: Looking for another online map “gadget”? Have fun with this tool from Rand McNally.
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Digital Initiatives–Canada
The Canadian Inventory of Digital Initiatives
From the site, “The Canadian Inventory of Digital Initiatives provides descriptions of Canadian information resources created for the Web, including general digital collections, resources centred around a particular theme, and reference sources and databases.” Spend time here and discover some real gems.
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History–New Zealand–Databases
Source: National Library of New Zealand
Updated Access Requirement: Timeframes, Historical Images From New Zealand
Passwords are no longer required. From the site, “Currently a selection of over 20,000 images from the Library�s collections is accessible through Timeframes. Accompanying the image on Timeframes is its full descriptive record taken from the Library�s database TAPUHI.”
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Women–United States
Employment–Women–United States
Source: US Census
Fertility of American Women: June 2000
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text
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Criminal Justice–United States–Statistics
Full-Text
Source: BJS
Felony Sentences in State Courts, 1998

Web Search–Excite
News Searching
Another Useful Tool About to Vanish, Adios NewsTracker
The post Chapter 11 Excite with another service cut back. A brief statement on the NewsTracker site reads, “We will be discontinuing the NewsTracker service effective November 15. Please continue to access current news stories at news.excite.com.” NewsTracker allowed users to create, modify, and store “custom topic” search strategies to be used with Excite’s news search engine. The service utilized a “learn what I like” feedback tool to help focus and refine the query.

Internet Training Resources
Tyburski’s “Teaching Internet Research Skills” Resources Revised, Rewritten, and Better Than Ever
Wow, what a great week for Internet research training tools. First, the TONIC tutorial from the UK (see 10/11/01 post). Today, Genie Tyburski let’s us know that a new and improved, “must have”, collection of resources for Internet trainers is now available. Genie’s site includes information covering a wide variety of topics including:
*Myths and Misconceptions
*Research Starting Points
*Evaluative Skills
Like I’ve said in the past, Genie’s “Virtual Chase” site is aimed primarily at law library audience. HOWEVER, this SHOULD NOT deter non-legal info professionals from making use of some of the highest quality material on the WWW.. For example, the “People Finder Guide” available at The Virtual Chase has value to both professionals and end users.

Digital Archives
Source: Chronicle of Higher Education
Coming Soon: Digital Archive of 30,000 Docs from Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre
From the article, The University of Oxford’s Refugee Studies Centre, which claims to hold the world’s largest archive of unpublished literature on forced migration, will make its collection available online next month.” “Among the documents are thousands of internal reports produced both by governments and nongovernmental organizations in parts of the developing world, including East Timor, the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Guatemala, Rwanda, and Vietnam, as well as large areas of the Middle East and Central Asia.”
Direct to the Refugee Studies Centre

Intellectual Property
IFLA/IPA - Publishers and Librarians Promote Common Principles on Copyright in the Electronic Environment
Source: International Federation of Library Associations/International Publishers Association

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items)
Virtual Reference–Bibliography
Reference Interview–Bibliography
The Reference Interview in the Digital Library: A Bibliography
Bernie Sloan from the University of Illinois is providing access to a new bibliography (draft) about this important topic.
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Controlled Vocabularies–Compilation
Source: National Library of Canada
New Compilation: Thesauri and Controlled Vocabularies
Comprehensive list to many thesauri and controlled vocabularies used in Canada and elsewhere
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Education–United States–Statistics
Web Version Now Online: Projections of Education Statistics to 2011

Online Bookstores–Amazon.Com
Amazon Launches “Look Inside the Book”
From the news release, :”Amazon.com�s bookstore will now feature a vast selection of interior pages from over 25,000 titles, with thousands more titles to come.” For example, check out 25 pages from How To Read a Financial Report or 104 pages from The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows

Information Access
Source: Federal Computer Week
More on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission Site Shutdown
From the article, “The Nuclear Regulatory Commission shut down its Web site last week to review the information it contained and remove anything that could aid in possible terrorist attacks. “Basically, the agency is performing a review of the material on there to take a look at what information could be of help to our adversaries,” NRC spokeswoman Rosetta Virgilio said.”

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (4 Resources)
Economic Information
Updated Site: The Dismal Scientist Is Online With A Re-Designed Site
Time to take a fresh look at this very useful resources. The site is updated throughout the day with breaking economic news. Also, you can sign-up for e-mail alerts (no charge) to be notified when numbers and reports from over 15 countries are released. Finally, take note of several interactive reports available in the fifth column of the site.
See Also: If you’re looking for more economic numbers, searchable and browsable, stop by FreeLunch.Com. The site boasts a collection of over 1,000,000 economic and financial data series. All of the material is available for free.
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Education–United States
Updated Site: Revamped U.S. Department of Education Site Debuts
From the news release, The new www.ed.gov site includes several improvements and adds new features for its users including the following�
*Information has been reorganized and can be reached through multiple paths, including these five categories: grants and contracts, financial aid for students, education resources, research and statistics and policy.
*Customized pages have been created for teachers, principals, parents and families, students, higher education institutions and grantees and technical assistance providers.
*Visitors may personalize the site to see the latest information about their favorite topics. They can also sign up for weekly updates announcing new additions to the site.
*An improved search function will produce results that are more relevant and reliable.
Direct to www.ed.gov
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Energy Information–Searchable Database
Source: U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI)
New Database: Energy Citations Database (1948 � Present)
From the site, “Energy Citations contains bibliographic records for energy and energy-related scientific and technical information from the Department of Energy (DOE) and its predecessor agencies, the Energy Research & Development Administration (ERDA) and the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). The Database provides access to DOE publicly available citations from 1948 through the present, with continued growth through regular updates. Energy Citations includes bibliographic records of literature in disciplines of interest to DOE such as chemistry, physics, materials, environmental science, geology, engineering, mathematics, climatology, oceanography, computer science and related disciplines. It includes citations to report literature, conference papers, journal articles, books, dissertations, and patents.”
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Professional Reading–Digital Libraries
The October issue of D-Lib is Now Online
Plenty of worthwhile reading. Here are two articles deserving special attention.
*”Public Access to Digital Material”
Brewster Kahle, Internet Archive; Rick Prelinger, Prelinger Archives; and Mary E. Jackson, Association of Research Libraries
&
*”A Call to Researchers: Digital Libraries Need Collaboration Across Disciplines”
Kevin W. Boyack, Brian N. Wylie, and George S. Davidson, Sandia National Laboratories

Streaming Media–Search Tools
A Company For Your Search Radar: StreamSage
From a news release, “StreamSage Inc., the only developer of software capable of automatically indexing, searching, and personalizing audio/video content, has received a prestigious $2 million award from the U.S. Department of Commerce. This award allows StreamSage to continue to pioneer path-breaking automated editing and delivery applications for audio/video content.” More on this company later.
Direct to StreamSage (much more background, demo available)

Copyright–Canada
Source: Info Today News Breaks
“Canadian Court Rules in Favor of Freelance Authors”
From the News Break, Robertson v. Thomson Corp. is a major Canadian copyright decision in a $100 million (CAN) class-action suit between Heather Robertson, on behalf of freelance authors, and Thomson Corp.; its electronic publishing affiliate, Information Access Co.; and The Globe and Mail newspaper (recently sold and now owned by Bell GlobeMedia). This is the first Canadian case to examine the ownership of�and the subsequent right to be compensated for the use of�articles by freelance writers in online databases…Canadian copyright law differs significantly from the law in the U.S. However, Robertson will have the same impact on Canadian copyright law as Tasini is currently having in the U.S.

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (2 Items)
Adult Education–Dictionary
Principles and Principals: A Dictionary of Contemporary Adult Education Terms and Their Users
119 pages .pdf (Note: We learned of this new resource via the ERIC Adult, Career & Vocational Education Clearinghouse
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Elections–United States
Presidential Election 2000–United States
Source: GAO
4 Reports from the General Accounting Office
Elections: Perspectives on Activities and Challenges Across the Nation
GAO-02-3, October 15
Elections: A Framework for Evaluating Reform Proposals
GAO-02-90, October 15
Elections: Status and Use of Federal Voting System Standards
GAO-02-52, July 31
Elections: Statistical Analysis of Factors That Affected Uncounted Votes in the 2000 Presidential Election
GAO-02-122, October 15