Natural Language Search Tools–iPhrase
iPhrase Technology Now Available via Yahoo Finance
From the news release, “For example, an investment analyst doing securities research could ask Yahoo! Finance for the “current market cap, p/e ratio and cash for Microsoft, Sun and Cisco,” and would be presented with a custom table that captures and returns that exact information in one step. The iPhrase solution also provides definitions for dozens of financial terms; direct navigation to current market information, such as most active stocks, upgrades/downgrades and earnings calendars; and direct access to quotes, charts, SEC filings and other company-specific information for publicly traded stocks.”
See Also: Direct to Yahoo Finance Search Using iPhrase
See Also: “Natural Search Tools Gain Context” (From InternetWeek)
See Also: Review of iPhrase Technology Being Used on the Schwab.Com Site
Update: See 12/12 postings for link to iPhrase CEO interview

Taxonomies
Source: Transform
“Taxonomies Put Content in Context”
This overview article includes two useful sidebars: 1)The ABC’s of Taxonomy & Classification and 2)Taxonomy & Classification Glossary.

Information Needs in Higher Education
“Outsell Study of Academic Information Users Commissioned by Digital Library Federation”
From the announcement, “Outsell, Inc., the leading information content industry research and advisory firm, today announced the launch of a landmark study of the information needs and preferences of higher education students and faculty. The first of its size and scope, the multi-institution study will compare the information-seeking behaviors of more than 3,200 students and faculty across seven academic disciplines in liberal arts colleges and research/doctoral universities. The Outsell study, which takes a comprehensive look at the total information environment within academic institutions, was commissioned by the Digital Library Federation (DLF). DLF funding for this project was obtained from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. The study’s objective is to provide much needed insight into how academics currently use information, and develop baseline and trend data that will inform all levels of planning, development, and deployment for universities, libraries, and content providers,” said Outsell Vice President Leigh Watson Healy.”
See Also: Direct to Digital Library Federation

Online Books–Ebrary
Ebrary Licenses More Content, Penguin Classics Library
From the news release, “– ebrary(TM) ( www.ebrary.com), a leading provider of information distribution and retrieval services, today announced that Penguin Classics will distribute its library of literary masterpieces to new online markets via ebrary’s software, ebrarian(TM). For the first time, libraries, consumers, and other institutions will have online access to Penguin Classics titles ranging from Aristotle to Mark Twain.”
See Also: Direct to Ebrary Homepage
See Also: Search and Browse Ebrary content via The Learning Network

News Briefs
Getting Your Listing To Number One
Source: NYT
Although this weblog focuses on the web as a research/reference tool, this NYT article provides a solid overview to the world of search engine placement and optimization.
See Also: Google Opens Advertising Office in Germany

Web History
Source: ZD Net News
“Q&A: Meet the Real Web Pioneer”
From the article, “This country’s [USA] actual Web pioneer, by contrast, had smaller things on his mind when he launched the first Web server and Web page on U.S. soil. Much smaller, in fact: electrons. It was at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) that particle physicist Paul Kunz wrote and posted the first American Web page 10 years ago today.” Also, from the Q&A,
Q. What interested you?
A. The first Web browser was more than just a browser–it had the ability to do a search on a remote machine. That’s the key to the Web–the ability to do searches. He did a search on the mainframe IBM computer and the help system gave back pointers as to where to find documents you might be searching for. That gave me the idea: If he could do searches, then I could do that too. I had a database online at SLAC that needed an interface to the Internet. That database is called SPIRES.

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items)
National Occupational Classification for Statistics–Canada
Source: Statistics Canada
Now available online. From the site, “Statistics Canada’s revised occupational classification for 2001 is called the National Occupational Classification for Statistics 2001 (NOC-S 2001) to distinguish it from the National Occupational Classification (NOC) put out by Human Resources Development Canada. (The two classifications differ only in the aggregation structure of the classification). Both provide a complete listing of all the categories under which Canadian jobs are classified and their descriptions.”
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Database Searching–ERIC
December ERIC Update Now Available
Searching with controlled vocabulary, lesson plans, new resources.
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Social Security–United States
Full-Text
Source: Congressional Budget Office
Social Security: A Primer

U.S. Government Information–FirstGov
Source: Federal Computer Week
“FirstGov to Undergo Overhaul”
From the article, “A top priority is making the site look better. “Conduct graphical improvements, improve current look and feel,” according to the GSA notice. Develop “a graphical image that is on a par with, for example, the California state portal site.” Let’s hope search functionality and relevancy also improves!

Info Industry–Dialog
Dialog Introduces Quantum2 Program to Europe
From the news release, “The Dialog Corporation, a Thomson business and a leading international provider of online-based information services, today announced plans for the European roll-out of its Quantum2 development program for information professionals. The program, which builds on and enhances a highly successful Dialog program first introduced in 1993, provides training and tools to enhance professional development, with a special focus on strategies to develop leadership skills and demonstrate the value of professional information services within organisations.”

U.S. Government Web Sites–Department of the Interior
Source: Washington Post
Entire Department of Interior Site Taken Offline
Interior Dept. Still Down (Wired News)
From the article, “Responding to a court order, the Interior Department has cut itself off from the Internet, crippling the ability of Interior employees to communicate by e-mail and blocking access to information gathered by the department that is routinely used by other agencies and the public. The shutdown occurred Thursday afternoon on the order of U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth, who is presiding over a long-running lawsuit alleging decades of mismanagement by the federal government in the handling of trust funds for American Indians.”
Update: As of 12/13 @ Midnight EST http://www.doi.gov and http://www.ngs.gov were not back online.
See Also: “Access to Information is Declining after Sept. 11″ (from Orlando Sentinel)

National Libraries–Canada
National Library of Canada Performance Report 2001
National Library of Canada Performance Report 2000

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items)
Government–Canada–Lists
Source: Library of Parliament
Sitting Days of the House of Commons by Calendar Year-1968 to Date
Sitting Days of the Senate by Calendar Year-1960 to Date
Sitting Days of the Provincial and Territorial Legislatures by Calendar Year-1987 to Date
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R&D–Funding–United States
Full-Text
Source: NSF
Research and Development Funding and Performance by Nonprofit Organizations: Fiscal Years 1996 and 1997
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Public Transportation–United Kingdom–Statistics
Full-Text
Source: Department Transport, Local Government and the Regions
A Bulletin of Public Transport Statistics: 2001 Edition
Regional Transport Statistics: 2001 Edition

National Archives–United States
Speech: “State of the Archives”
Delivered by John W. Carlin, Archivist of the United States
December 5, 2001

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items)
Elections–U.S. Congressional–Primaries, 2002
Source: FEC
2002 U.S. Congressional Primary Election Dates (By State and By Date)
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Energy–United States
Performance Profiles of Major Energy Producers, 2000
Source: EIA
These are advance tables.
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Documents in the News
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Al Qaeda Training Manual
“…manual was located by the Manchester (England) Metropolitan Police during a search of an Al Qaeda member’s home. The manual was found in a computer file described as “the military series” related to the “Declaration of Jihad.” The manual was translated into English and was introduced earlier this year at the embassy bombing trial in New York. The Department is only providing the following selected text from the manual because it does not want to aid in educating terrorists or encourage further acts of terrorism.”

Online Databases–xrefer
xrefer Launches xrefer Plus, A New Fee-Based Service for Libraries
Yesterday, xrefer, the well-known and critically acclaimed database of free reference content officially launched a new fee-based service for libraries. The service is fully searchable and browsable. xrefer Plus contains material from over 100 sources published by over 20 well-known reference publishers. xrefer Plus is offering a free one month trial. You can sign-up (free) via this link. More on this new product later.
See Also: Official xrefer Press Release
See Also: Direct to xrefer Plus

Web Search Tools
LITA Web Search Toolkit Updated
LITA, (Library and Technology Association, a division of ALA), has just updated it’s impressive web search toolkit. A section of news search tools is now part of the compilation.

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources
Small Business–United States
Business and the Law
Source: GCN
SBA Launches BusinessLaw.Gov
From the article, “The Small Business Administration today launched a new Web site to help small businesses comply with laws and regulations.The site, at www.BusinessLaw.gov, covers topics such as choosing a business structure, hiring a lawyer, developing e-commerce and handling exports, SBA officials said.”
Direct to BusinessLaw.Gov Thanks to GT for the news tip.

Use of Online Information
Outsell Releases First-Ever Study of Information Habits of European Sales & Marketing Professionals
From the news release, “Study reveals free information sources on open web preferred for daily decision-making; fee-based services still maintain competitive edge for business-critical decisions.”

Life Online–Future
Source: PC World
A Few Products Under Development At Microsoft Research
In this article mentions of Mindnet “”A huge natural language database automatically created from dictionaries,” in development at MSR. The dictionary information helps links words by their relationships. It is a much more sophisticated sibling of the grammar checking technology in Microsoft Word. Ask MSR:”a natural language, automated question answering site that is used internally for fun more than work. It researches questions across the Internet. “It’s a very early stage of the technology,” Rashid says. “We get about 50 percent of the answers right.” For now, he says, that technology is best suited to help answer the very specific, expensive questions at the end of Who Wants to be a Millionaire? rather than the common-sense queries in the early rounds. Computers are apparently still learning common sense.”

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (3 Items)
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Computer Software–Ready Reference
Filext, A Comprehensive Lists of File Extensions
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Charities–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: Worth
100 Best Charties (guide for those people who expect a good return)
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Small Business–United States
Source: Entrepreneur
State-By-State Guide to Doing Business
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Service Industry–Statistics–United States
Source: U.S. Census
2000 Service Industry Annual Survey
From the site, “…report covering professional, scientific and technical services. This sector includes legal services (except notaries); accounting, tax preparation, bookkeeping and payroll services; architectural, engineering and related services; management, scientific and technical consulting services; scientific research and development services; advertising and related services; and other professional, scientific and technical services.”
See Also: “Securities and Commodities Underwriters, Dealers and Brokers Report Revenues of $251 Billion”

Women in the Workplace–United States
Source: U.S. Census
Maternity Leave and Employment Patterns, 1961-1995
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text

Info Industry–netLibrary
Source: The Daily Camera (Boulder CO.)
“NetLibrary Sale Plans Move Forward “
From the article, “Struggling Boulder firm netLibrary’s sale through bankruptcy court took two major strides forward Monday when a judge approved a loan to keep the firm going and granted its sales procedure. The approved motions are important to netLibrary. Its chief executive testified Monday to the urgency of a quick sale. Robert Kaufman, netLibrary’s president and CEO, stressed that the proposed $10 million sale to OCLC Online Computer Library Center is urgent. He said the sale, which netLibrary hopes will close on Jan. 15, will boost netLibrary’s sales, which have dropped significantly since it went up for sale and filed for Chapter 11 protection.” Thanks to B.S. for the news tip.

Scholarly Journals
Source: EContent
“Behind the Firewall – Electronic Access to Scientific Journals: Problems, Problems”
From Martin White’s article, “…in the mid-1990s, a number of publishers started to look at the possibilities of publishing electronic versions of scientific journals, in particular Elsevier, Academic Press, and the Institute of Physics Publishing. Since all the journals were now compiled electronically, creating a database of the text of the journals was a fairly straightforward process. Of course, it would require investment, and so the electronic journals would cost more than the print versions. And that is where the problems started.”

Web Search–Ask George
State of Washington
Source: Government E-Business
Ask George Answers Local Queries
From the article, “Washington state, which earlier this year launched a plain-English search engine for its state portal, has expanded the service to scan information related to 200 cities and 39 counties.”

News Brief
LexisNexis Adds Resources To “Scholastic Universe” Product
Now, content from over 150 newspapers available. Previously, 60 papers were included.

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (2 Items)
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Legal Industry–United States–Lists & Rankings
Source: The National Law Journal
The National Law Journal 250(Largest Law Firms)
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Labor Market–United States–Projections
Source: BLS
2000-2010 Employment Projections
See Also: Occupational Outlook Quartely Winter 2001-2002 Issue

Citation Indexing–England–Lists & Rankings
Source: ISI
Science in England, 1996-2000
From the list, “England’s world share of science and social science papers over a recent five-year period, expressed as a percentage of papers in each of 22 fields in the ISI database. Also, England’s relative citation impact compared to the world average in each field, in percentage terms. These data pertain to England alone and do not include Scotland, Wales, or Northern Ireland.”
Other Lists from ISI
Top 10 Journals (Impact Factors) In Economics
Top 10 Journals (Impact Factors) In Geology
Top 10 Journals (Impact Factors) In Sociology

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources
Digital Reference
Source: ERIC Clearinghouse on Information and Technology
New ERIC Digest: Trends and Issues in Digital Reference Services
PDF version also available
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Prime Ministers–Canada
Source: National Library of Canada
New Resource: First Among Equals: The Prime Minister in Canadian Life and Politics
From the announcement, “Developed in partnership with the National Archives of Canada and the Digital Library of Canada Task Force, First Among Equals has two versions: one for a general audience and a children�s site tailored for younger users. The main First Among Equals site is unique in that it not only provides core information about our prime ministers, but it also offers details about their private lives, their role as leader of a political party and leader of our country. It also illustrates the historical and social period during which they lived.”

Web-Based Reference Tools–Reviews
New: Peter Jacso’s Digital Reference Shelf Reviews, December Now Online
Peter looks at xrefer and the The Top 10 of Everything 2002 Sampler published by Dorling Kinderly.
See Also: Direct to xrefer

New, Updated, & Newly Discovered Resources (2 Items)
Research Grants–National Science Foundation
Source: NSF
Grant Proposal Guide, NSF 02-2
Effective January 1, 2002, .pdf Not Yet Available

Reference–Writing
Full-Text Online
The Economist Style Guide