New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources & Tools (3 Items)
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Federal Employees–Canada
Source: Treasury Board of Canada
Sources of Federal Employee Information 2001-2002
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Space–Images
Source: Space.Com
Coolest Space Science Images of 2001
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Films–United States–Lists & Rankings
National Film Registry 2001 Selections
See Also: National Film Registry Selections, 1989-2000

Information Industry–Year in Review
Source: Info Today NewsBreaks
“2001 News in Review”
Paula Hane, editor of Info Today’s NewsBreaks and contributing editor of Information Today, provides an excellent review of the major info industry news stories of 2001.
See Also: “2001 Looking Back, Looking Ahead” (Library Journal)

Search Terms–Lists & Rankings
Yahoo Most Popular Search Terms, Part 1, 2001
Yahoo Most Popular Search Terms, Part 2, 2001
AltaVista Europe, Top Search Terms, 2001

Legal Research
Academic Libraries
Two Interesting Articles from the Law Librarians in the New Millenium Newsletter
The Winter 2002 issue of this West Group newsletter for librarians has two articles that might be of interest.
1) “Class Discussion” (page 1)
Dan Dabney, senior director of Legal Product Research and Development at West discusses legal classification.
2) “Starting From Scratch: Tips on Building a Modern Academic Library Collection” (page 6)
Suggestions from Margaret Meaes Axtmann who helped build the collection at the University of St. Thomas law library.

U.S. Government–Electronic Records
Source: Federal Computer Week
“Electronic Records Baffle Agencies”
From the article, “A survey of more than 150 federal agencies and departments concludes that most agencies are still baffled by electronic records. According to the National Archives and Records Administration, most federal agencies create documents in electronic formats, but when preserving them as official records, print them on paper and put them into storage.”
See Also: The 12/19 posting contains a link to the full-text document discussed in this article.

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources & Tools (2 Items)
Books–Lists & Rankings
Source: Publishers Weekly
All-Time Bestselling Children’s Books
“A listing of hardcovers that have sold 750,000 copies and paperbacks that have topped the one million copy mark over the years.” The list currently contains 376 titles.
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Health–Economic Issues
Source: WHO
Full-Text Report–Macroeconomics and Health: Investing in Health for Economic Development

Legal Information–Worldwide
Legal Information–Hong Kong
New Prototype and Demo Now Available: World Legal Information Institute (Prototype)
and Hong Kong Legal Information Institute (Demo)
From the WLII site, “This is a prototype system that is intended to demonstrate the viability and functionality of a cooperative approach between the existing LIIs (Legal Information Institutes). The system currently combined access to all AustLII, BAILII, CanLII, PacLII and HKLII data as well as data provided by WITS in South Africa.”

Academic Libraries
Source: Business Week
A Tip o’ the Cap to Steven J. Bell of Philadelphia University
A letter to the editor by Steven J. Bell, Director of the Library at Philadelphia University appears in the 12/31/01 (domestic ed.) of Business Week. From the letter, “Librarians are tech-savvy, human search engines who are highly skilled at finding information on the Internet or teaching students how to use electronic databases effectively. Students who subscribe [to services like Questia] are probably paying for something they can get at their academic library as part of their tuition.” Bell was responding to a 12/10/01 article about Questia and other services.

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources & Tools (7 Items)
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Business–Canada–Lists & Rankings
Source: Report on Business Magazine
50 Best Companies to Work For In Canada
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Climate–Global–Annual Review
Source: NCDC
Climate of 2001 - Annual Review, Significant U.S. and Global Events
See Also: Climate of 2001 - Annual Review, Preliminary Report
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Population–United States
Source: U.S. Census
Current U.S. Population Estimates
“The nation has grown by 3.4 million people since April 1, 2000, increasing from 281.4 million counted in Census 2000 to 284.8 million as of July 1, 2001, according to estimates released today by the Commerce Department’s Census Bureau.”
Summary ||| Direct to Population Estimates
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Internet Usage-United States
Religion–United States
Source: Pew Internet and American Life Project
Full-Text Report: CyberFaith: How Americans Pursue Religion Online
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Higher Education–Research–Statistics–United States
Source: NSF
Academic Research and Development Expenditures: [Early Release Tables] Fiscal Year 2000
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Higher Education–Science–Statistics–United States
Source: NSF
Data Brief: “Growth Continued in 2000 in Graduate Enrollment in Science and Engineering Fields”
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Grants–National Science Foundation–Guides
Source: National Science Foundation
NSF FY 2002 Guide to Programs

Online Databases–Directory
WebClarity Developing Database Registry
The registry began development at the end of October. From the site, “Individuals looking to access various types of resources can use the Resource Registry to search for specific databases of interest. A variety of searching and browsing options are available allowing users to quickly identify databases relevant to their needs. The Registry will then provide links allowing users to connect to the database by one or more methods including Web, Telnet and Z39.50/ISO23950 access.” “The Registry has been specifically designed to handle the complexities of describing Z39.50/ISO23950 resources. At the present time, the Registry contains several hundred entries describing these resources. It is currently comprised of Public and Academic library catalog databases from around the world.” Information about registering your databases is also available.
See Also: Read the Registry “White Paper”

U.S. Government Publications–Commerce Business Daily
Final Week: Commerce Business Daily To Cease Publication, Replaced With Database
In case you missed the news last May, the CBD (where the U.S. Government publishes many procurement annoucements) will cease publication after the 1/4/2001 issue. From the annoucement, “… effective January 4, 2002, the Department of Commerce will cease publication of the CBD through the U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO). Agencies should recognize FedBizOpps as the official source for all procurement information and notices to be published under 41 U.S.C. 416(a)(2)(B) and the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 637(e) and (k)). Other notices that would be published, such as notices of subcontracting opportunities (15 U.S.C. 637(k)) will also be made available to FedBizOpps.”
See Also: Direct to the FederalBizOpps Database

Professional Reading & Learning Shelf (2 Items)
1) “Next Generation Web Search: Setting Our Sites”
by Professor Marti A. Hearst University of California, Berkeley,
From IEEE Data Engineering Bulletin, Special issue on Next Generation Web Search, Luis Gravano (Ed.),
September 2000.
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2) “Designing Information Architecture for Search”
Also by Professor Hearst. These slides were used at a tutorial presented at the 2001, SIGIR (Special Interest Group on Information Retrieval, ACM) Conference.

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources & Tools (4 Items)
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State Policy Issues–Annual Report
Source: E-Mail
Stateline.Org Makes 2001 State Policy Highlights Report Available
From the e-mail message, “State of the States 2001,” a 58-page soft cover book, also includes profiles of the two governors elected in November and lots of other information. If you haven’t already done so, reserve your free copy of this useful resource by emailing your name and POSTAL mailing address to managingeditor@stateline.org.”
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Economics–Europe
Source: Financial Times
Special Section: “Countdown to E-Day”
Key reference resources include Euro and Changeover FAQs, Eurozone Map, Euro Glossary, Euro Chronology and a Key 2002 Dates List.
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Census–United States
Demographics–United States
Source: U.S. Census
Census Begins Roll-Out of Summary File 2 Data
Today, D.C. and Vermont data becomes available.
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Sports–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: The Sporting News
The Sportings News Power 100 (Most Powerful People in Sports)
2000 list also available
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Popular Music–Lists & Rankings
Source: Billboard
Billboard Year-End Charts
Numerous charts. Note: Abridged versions are available for non-subscribers. For example, the non-subscribers get the top 100 of the top 200 album chart.

Reference
“The Convenience Catastrophe”
Source: Library Journal
Here are two passages from Roy Tennant’s insightful, must read, column. Roy writes, “Anyone who has worked a reference desk has seen users pleased with a quick and mediocre answer when, with a bit more time and effort, they could get a better one. It’s called ’satisficing.’ It’s human nature to seek that which is ‘good enough’ rather than the best. For many, it’s a simple equation of effort vs. payback. At a ‘good enough’ point that can only be determined by a specific individual, it becomes too much trouble to reach the optimum for the perceived gain.” He continues, “So how do we fight this tendency?” “We must provide more information online about what our print collections hold, so that potential users of our holdings can more easily discover the treasures they contain. Converting our card catalogs into digital form was merely the beginning. A title, an author, and a few subject headings are often inadequate to determine if a particular book will be useful or not. We need to work cooperatively to provide much more information about our books, particularly nonfiction works.”

Monitoring the News–BBC Monitoring
Learn About: BBC Monitoring
A bit of background about the folks in Caversham. This short article appears in a recent Factiva publication.
See Also: BBC Monitoring Home Page
See Also: BBC Monitoring Country Profiles (Free)
See Also: BBC Monitoring Week Ahead Calendar (Free)

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources & Tools (2 Items)
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Year in Review-2001
Source: InfoPlease.Com
InfoPlease.Com’s Year In Review 2001 Now Online
� Fast Fact, one-stop shop features several lists including:
� Major News Stories, Month By Month
� Major Supreme Court Decisions
� Deaths in 2001
� Disasters in 2001
� Earthquakes 2001
� Arts & Entertainment, Month By Month
� Major Sports Stories, Month By Month
� Much More
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Grammar–English Language
Several Resources from AskOxford.Com
Better Writing, Classic Errors and Helpful Hints
Jargon Buster (Basic Grammar Terms Defined, Examples)
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Farm Subsidies–Databases–United States
Environmental Working Group Farm Subsidy Database, 1996-2000
From the site, ” 1996, a federal judge agreed with a lawsuit brought by The Washington Post to allow public access to USDA subsidy payment records. That lawsuit made it possible for EWG to build the Farm Subsidy database by assembling computerized records of tens of millions of farm program checks written by the U.S. Department of Agriculture during calendar years 1996 through 2000. The Environmental Working Group obtained these records through a Freedom of Information Act request.”
See Also: More Background About the Database

Real Estate Assessment–United States–Directories
Real Estate Assessor Offices
I’ve heard from several of you letting me know that the compilation of property assessor offices made available from the University of Virginia was no longer available at its old url. Good news, the resources is still online. Many of the sites linked on the page provide access to invisible web databases. Btw, the page is part of Portico, a wondeful collection of web-based reference tools. A must bookmark!

Reference Tools–Encyclopaedia Britannica
Source: The Straits Times (Singapore)
“Britannica Bites Back”
From the article, “The world’s oldest encyclopaedia stopped printing in 1999 and saw sales plummet. Now the 32-volume print set is back, but can it survive in the Information Age?”

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources
Business–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: Forbes
Forbes Platinum 400, 2002
“All 400 of these corporations show the strategy, stamina and growth to be standouts among their peers.” Searchable, create customized lists.

Web Search–Images
Source: RLG DigiNews
Image Search FAQ
Richard Entlich provides a solid overview of searching for images on the web. The article includes a brief review of image searching, details about many key search tools with several charts (perfect for training), and details on how image searching on the web works. The article also includes a study on how well these image retrieval tools work. Well done!

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources
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Canada–History
Source: National Library of Canada
“Exploring Canada Virtually”
From the site, “These two exciting new sites, which can be found www.nlc-bnc.ca/explorers and www.nlc-bnc.ca/explorers/kids are dedicated to the discovery and exploration of our great country. Their content is based primarily on the published accounts of a selection of explorers, including the Vikings, John Cabot, Jacques Cartier, Samuel de Champlain and George Vancouver. Histories of the Northwest Passage, Acadia and the Arctic are all available at the click of a mouse.”

Online Information–LexisNexis
Online Information–WhizBang
LexisNexis and WhizBang Form A Strategic Alliance
Some very exciting technology ready for utilization by LN. From the news release, “With this alliance, LexisNexis will employ WhizBang!’s Extraction Framework(tm) to deliver the most comprehensive, current information to users of the LexisNexis Advertising Red Books� and Directory of Corporate Affiliations(tm) (DCA).” “WhizBang! Labs extraction technology integrates proprietary software products that automatically find, classify and extract information from a wide variety of unstructured sources including corporate intranets, extranets, web pages and document databases. WhizBang!’s Extraction Framework combs these sources for targeted information that coincides with content contained within the Red Books and Directory of Corporate Affiliations databases, extracts the relevant data and drives it to refresh specific records.” WhizBang technology powers the FlipDog job database.
See Also: “WhizBang! joins LexisNexis Project” (via Deseret News)
See Also: Direct to WhizBang
See Also: WhizBang White Papers (Explanation of Technology)

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items)
Energy–Statistics
Source: EIA
Annual Energy Outlook 2002 with Projections to 2020
See Also: Supplemental Tables To AEO 2002
See Also: Assumptions to the AEO 2002
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Businesses–United States
Source: U.S. Census
Statistics of U.S. Businesses: 1999: All Industries
Use pull-down menu (top-right) for detailed state data.
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Violence in the Workplace–United States–Statistics
Source: BJS
Violence in the Workplace, 1993-99
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text

Database of the Week
Online Journals
An Old Fave: jake (jointly administered knowledge environment)
Do you need to know what full-text database a particular journal is located? If so, give jake a spin. From the site, “jake is a reference source which makes finding, managing, and linking online journals and journal articles easier for students, researchers, and librarians. jake does this by managing metadata about online resources with a database union list, title authority control, and linking tools, as well as making it easy to customize for a specific library’s holdings.” Currently the database holds contents info for 195 databases. Btw, you can also download the complete holdings of a particular database directly into MARC or delimited text formats. In fact, most of jake can be modified as it’s freeware. Btw, for those of you who are jake regulars the new official url is: http://www.jake-db.org. Finally, you can find a beta of an alternative interface to jake from Simon Fraser University.

Web Search–Google
Google’s Year-End Zeitgeist Now Available
Lists and rankings of the most popular search terms and trends.
See Also: Ask Jeeves list of the Most Popular Questions of 2001

Digital Archiving
Source: RLG DigiNews
“Collaboration Between RLG and OCLC With Digital Archiving Initiatives”
Robin Dale from RLG and Meg Bellinger from OCLC discuss several cooperative initiatives.

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (6 Items)
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Careers and Occupations–United States
Source: BLS
New Edition Online: Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2003-03
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Careers and Occupations–United States
Source: BLS
New Edition Online: Career Guide to Industries, 2002-03
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Energy–United States–Directory
Source: EIA
Redesign, Energy Information Directory
From the EIA site, “…a web only product that includes the latest information on Government and non-Government organizations that provide public energy information. Included are information centers, technology centers, State energy offices and numerous trade associations with a concise and up-to-date listing of energy contacts and resources.”
See Also: Key World Energy Statistics, 2001 ed. (Source: IEA)
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Poverty–United States
Source: U.S. Census
1998 Povery Estimates, By County
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text Report
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Business Journals–Impact Factor–Lists & Rankings
Source ISI
Journals Ranked by Impact: Business
Top 10 for 2000, 1996-2000, 1981-2000.
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Social Sciences–Citation Rates–Lists and Rankings
Source: ISI
Social Sciences (General): World’s Most-Cited Institutions, 1991-2001
Top 5

Web Search–Ask Jeeves
Ask Jeeves Announces Most Popular Questions for 2001
What do the masses want to have answered?

News Tools–NewsNow
Google Adds Top News Headlines
Find headlines for top stories, updated hourly, from over 100 open-web news sources. Categories include World, US, Business, Entertainment, Technology and Sports. Another excellent news compilation resource is NewsNow. This site compiles stories from many open-web sources in hundreds of different catagories. You can find a list of categories via the pull-down menus on the right side of the page. New content is addded every five minutes. Open windows will auto refresh. For a “virtual news ticker” check out the NewsNow Live Feed which places all headlines on a single page that updates automatically. NewsNow is also keyword searchable.

Online Information–Hoover’s
Hoover’s Adds New Search Functionality To Subscription Product
From the annoucement, “The new search technology gives Hoover’s Online users rapid, comprehensive results from Hoover’s proprietary database, plus non-U.S. companies from Mergent, as well as company, subsidiary and branch locations covered by D&B. Hoover’s new search technology also paves the way for future enhancements, including additional advanced search fields and capabilities…Hoover’s new search technology allows Hoover’s Online users to search for companies using a number of criteria, including company name, ticker symbol, keyword, and D&B D-U-N-S Number.”

Document Delivery
“Article Economy”
Outsell/Infotrieve Place $ Value on “Article Economy”
A recently released survey from Outsell (commissioned by document delivery vendor Infotrieve) set the value of the “article economy” at 1.6 billion. From the news release, “The results of the survey of both corporate and academic librarians and end users show a growing demand for electronic delivery of journal articles using the Pay-Per-View model. Increases in print journal subscription prices, advances in online document delivery technology, and the growing sophistication of users and librarians account for this shift in emphasis toward document delivery, particularly electronic delivery…For the purposes of the study, Outsell defined the Article Economy as including published journal articles, self-published articles, papers from conference proceedings, and chapters from monographs and books. Document delivery was defined as including inter-library loan.”

Online Information–BioMed Central
Scholarly Publishing
Source: Managing Information
“Biomed Central Adopts Processing Charge for Articles”
From the article, “BioMed Central will introduce a processing charge for articles published in its online journals beginning on January 1 2002. The decision to introduce processing charges is apparently the result of a consultation process across the scientific community and with representatives of key funding bodies…BioMed Central believes that the payment of a small processing charge in return for immediate and permanent free access to published research will become a widely accepted and standard part of science funding policy. Preliminary discussions with funding bodies and research institutions suggest that payment of processing charges from research grants and infrastructure funding will be allowed. With this in mind, it has been decided that from January 1 2002 there will be a US$500 processing charge for any article accepted for publication in BMC journals.”
Update: More On This Topic from The Chronicle of Higher Education

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items)
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ERIC (Education Resource Information Clearinghouse)
ERIC Annual Report 2001
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Government Records–United States
Source: NARA
Full-Text Report, Current Recordkeeping and Records Use Within the Federal Government
See Also: Report Also Available in PDF
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E-Books
Source: JISC/DNER
Full-Text, “Shaping A Strategy for E-Books: An Issues Paper”
This September, 2001 report was written by Hazel Woodward and Louise Edwards.

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items)
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Scholarly Publishing
Full-Text Article
Source: ARL Bimonthly Report 218 (October, 2001)
Beyond Core Journals and Licenses: The Paths to Reform Scientific Publishing
by Jean-Claude Gu�don, Universit� de Montr�al
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Lawyers–United States–Directories and Databases
Source: LLRX.Com
“Finding Lawyers: Directories, Web Sites & State Bar Sources”
A comprehensive webliography. Impressive!
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Forests–United States–Searchable Database
Source: U.S. Forest Service
U.S. Forest Service Image Database

Web Search
Excite Results No Longer from Excite’s Own Database
After a few weeks of continuing to provide its own results, it appears that Excite.Com is now serving results from Overture’s paid-inclusion database (supplemented with Inktomi content). At the bottom the page is the option to try “Excite Metasearch” which provides Dopgpile results. The Excite directory now serves ODP (Open Directory Project) results. So, it looks as if the switchover has begun and time to say so long to the Excite crawled database. Results at other Excite sites may vary.
See Also: “Excite.com Spared from Extinction” (via SearchDay)
See Also: Excite UK to Shut Down

Archives–Canada
A New Project from the National Archives of Canada, “Accessible Archives”
From the site, “The National Archives of Canada has embarked on a new project�Accessible Archives�which looks ahead to the services we will be offering in the near future. Our objective is to serve Canadians better by making the holdings of the National Archives more accessible to them.”

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (4 Items)
Information–Credibility
Web Credibility Project @ Stanford
From the site, Our goal is to understand what leads people to believe what they find on the Web. We hope this knowledge will enhance Web site design and promote future research on Web credibility.” Makre sure to take a look at this paper/study, “What Makes A Web Site Credible?”. It’s available in full-text. Thanks to Tom Mighell, editor of the Internet Legal Research Weekly, for pointing this one out.
See Also: Evaluating the Quality of Information on the Internet
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Crime–United States
Source: FBI
Preliminary Semiannual Uniform Crime Report, January to June, 2001
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text
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Government Benefits–Canada
New Web Site: Canada Benefits
“The new Canada Benefits Web site provides Canadians with access to government-wide information about financial assistance and entitlements programs for individuals.”
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International Migration
Foreign Born Population–United States
Source: U.S. Census
New Full-Text Working Paper: Evaluating Components of International Migration: Estimates of the Foreign-Born Population by Migrant Status in 2000

New Search Technology–Audio Search
Source: Popular Mechanics
“Audio Search Engine Helps Reconstruct Holocaust History”
From the article, “Advances in the field of automatic video processing for search and retrieval helped Johns Hopkins University engineers develop this particular audio search engine. Based on speech recognition, the system will be used by the Shoah Foundation to make information in its archives of more than 51,000 video interviews more easily accessible…”We want to build a speech-recognition system that is good enough to recognize most of the words that a historian or educator might enter into the audio search engine,” says Bill Byrne, a professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Johns Hopkins.”

Photo Archives–Bettman
Source: Business 2.0
If You Visit the Bettman Archive Make Sure To Wear A Coat!

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources
Calendars-2002
Space
Integrated NASA Launch Schedule
“This is a launch forecast of anticipated dates for the NASA Space Shuttle and NASA payloads on expendable vehicles.”
See Also: NASA Space Calendar