Natural Language Processing–Experimental Projects
Summarization Software
Source: Online Journalism Review
NewsBlaster from Columbia University
NewsBlaster is an experimental prototype that uses natural language processing and other AI software to automatically generate text summaries. These summaries are built from content gathered using 13 web-based news sources including the Washington Post, CNN, Reuters, others. Officially, the site is described as an, “automatic system for event tracking and summarization”.
See Also: Direct to the NewsBlaster Demo
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Humanities Computing–Canada
Text Analysis
Souce: Chronicle of Higher Education
Canadian Universities Will Create an Online Portal for Studying Texts
“Scholars at six Canadian universities will create an online portal for researchers in that nation — and perhaps around the world — who study electronic texts.The Text Analysis Portal for Research will offer access to databases of electronic texts and software for studying them. In addition, each of the six participating universities will create laboratories equipped with scanners, computers, and other hardware and software that scholars could use to study texts.”
See Also: Direct to the Text Analysis Portal for Research

Academic Libraries
Source: The Batallion 2/7/02 (Texas A&M University)
Collection Development: Playboy in the Academic Library
This is not a new issue in the library world. The lead of the story reads, “Partly funded by student fees, Playboy magazine is available to students and any member of the community who purchases Sterling C. Evans Library cards for themselves and their children.” Also from the article, “The current periodicals section of the Evans library contains magazines and journals that enhance and relate to areas of student and faculty’s research and studies. For nearly 30 years, Playboy magazine has been included in this collection, said Charles Gilreath, Evans’ associate university librarian for advanced studies…Gilreath stressed that the library’s collection of periodicals reflects the needs and interests of students, staff and faculty. “A large academic library will have a large variety of periodicals,” he said.
See Also: “Students ‘checking out’ Playboy, Playgirl at Stanford“ (via UWire 10/14/01)

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items)
Poverty–Statistics–Database
Source: World Bank
DAPeR: Data for the Analysis for Poverty Reduction
Country data, create tables. Material can be downloaded into Excel format.
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Philanthropy Research
Fundraising Research
FAQ File From the Foundation Center
This FAQ was built by the Center’s Online Librarian service. If you have a question that’s not part of the FAQ, you might want to ask your question to the Online Librarian team. Since 1998 the Online Librarian has answered over 37,000 queries.

Cool Shareware Shelf (2 Items)
Here are a couple pieces of shareware that could save you some time, aggravation, and money.
1) NetSnippets (IE Only)
You can quickly and easily (drag and drop) save, annotate, and organize some or all the content (text, images) from web pages or other Windows programs (Word, Outlook, etc). Material is saved with original fonts, layout, point sizes, etc. Embedded hotlinks are live. One click to grab all images from a site. Free 30 day trial, $19.95 to unlock.
See Also: An All-Time Fave That We Mentioned Last August, SurfSaver (for IE and Netscape)
Surfsaver allows you to save an entire page(s) to your hard drive, useful. Once saved, you’re able to keyword search the full-text of all saved pages along with a few basic index fields, awesome. Limited Version: Free, Pro Version: $29.95.
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It’s Free! An Award Winning Word Processor
2) AbiWord (for Windows)
It’s not as complete as Word but this is one very robust word processor that’s available for free. Here’s a short review from PC World.

Image Search–Copyright Issues
“Search Engine’s Display of Copyright Photos Ruled Infringement”
From the AP story, “An Internet search engine violated a professional photographer’s copyright by displaying full-sized images of his work through “inline linking,” a federal appeals court ruled Wednesday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that small, low-quality thumbnail images were covered by the “fair use” provision of the Copyright Act, but reversed a lower court opinion that found the display of larger high-quality images also was protected. The appeals court sent the case back to the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California to determine damages and the need for an injunction against the search engine company, Arriba Soft Corp., now known as Ditto.com.”
See Also: Read the Full-Text of the Opinion (via 9th Circuit Court of Appeals)

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Entries)
Online Information Industry–OCLC
Bibliographic Databases
FirstSearch Database of the Month for February: Free Access to OCLC’s ArticleFirst Database
The trial allows you to search the ArticleFirst database containg the tables of contents from over 12,000 journals using the FirstSearch interface. Coverage begins in 1990. ArticleFirst is updated daily. To access click on the “Try it now” button located on the left side of the page (blue box).
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Bibliographic Databases–Latin America
More than 100 Bibliographic Databases Now Online Through the UNESCO Supported LATINO Project
From the announcement, “The Colima University in Mexico and UNESCO have now launched the online version of the LATINO project of bibliographic databases of Latin America and the Caribbean area. The portal gathers 114 data bases with bibliographic descriptions from libraries of institutions in 14 countries of the region: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela. Data from Spain are also available.”
See Also: Direct to the LATINO Bibliographic Database Site (In Spanish)
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Demographics–United States
Foreign Born Population–United States
Source: U.S. Census
Full-Text: Profile of the Foreign-Born Population in the United States: 2000
Summary/Highlights ||| Direct to Full-Text

Research Libraries
Scholarly Communication
Source: SPARC
New Research Library Organization Announced: International Scholarly Communications Alliance
From the announcement, “Eight of the world’s principal research library organizations today announced the establishment of the International Scholarly Communications Alliance (ISCA). The ISCA, an initiative of research library associations in Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Hong Kong SAR, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States, is an action-oriented global network that will collaborate with scholars and publishers to establish equitable access to scholarly and research publications…The ISCA – whose members represent over 600 research libraries worldwide – will engage in a series of activities that focus the scholarly publishing process on the primary goals of the academic research community, advancing the discovery of new knowledge and facilitating its dissemination.”

Internet–Gopher
Source: Search Day
Life on The Net Pre Web: Happy Birthday to Gopher
Chris Sherman reports on Gopher’s tenth birthday.

Business Research–Germany
Source: Free Pint
“Business Information in Germany”
David Scrimgeour writes about several resources necessary to conduct business research about Germany and German companies.

Film–Database
Source: AP
Learn About: The Internet Movie Database
From the article, “IMDb’s founder and top editor, Col Needham, 35, lives in Bristol, England, where he manages the site from nearly 4,800 miles away. He started the site in 1990 because he watched so many hundreds of movies each year that he lost track of the one’s he’d already seen. “I’d rent a new one and after 15 minutes say, ‘Wait … I’ve already seen this,’” said Needham, a former computer programmer. “So I put together my little database to save me wasting time at the video store.”

Web Search–Google
Source: Reuters
Everybody Wants To Work At Google
They get about 600 resumes per day.
See Also: Computer programming type? How about entering the First Annual Google Programming Contest?

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (4 Items)
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Demographics–United States
Demographics–International
Source: U.S. Census
New Full-Text Report: The United States in International Context
Summary/Fast Facts ||| Direct to Full-Text
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Economy–United States
Source: Council of Economic Advisers
New Edition: Economic Report of the President, 2002
Direct to Full-Text ||| Search and Previous Editions
441 pages .pdf
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Job Search–Canada–Directory
Learning–Canada–Directory
Source: Human Resources Development Canada/Jobboom Canada
Top 100 Internet Sites for Learning and Employment
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Health Care–Canada
Full Text: Interim Report of the Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada
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British Monarchy
Source: Golden Jubilee Office
Selected Resources: Queen’s Golden Jubilee
Facts and Figures About the Queen ||| About Prince Phillip (Both lists are very comprehensive)
Queen’s Golden Jubilee Programme
Events Calendar/Regional Events Advanced Search
Additional Events and Tours

News Briefs
U.S. Dept of Interior and U.K. 1901 Census Sites Remain Offline

Fast Facts
The World Almanac February Newsletter is Now Available
Info on February events, birthdays, holidays, and more. You’ll also find a January 2002 chronology. This update is available for free.

Web Search–Google
Source: Boston Globe
The Boston Globe Chats With Google’s CEO Eric Schmidt
As you’ll read, Schmidt sees Google being the one search solution mechanism for all information. In responding to a question about the future of Google, Schmidt says, “So the obvious questions is: Where does Google go from here? And the answer is … search. Let me give you an example: Are all the world’s governments’ documents online? Can you search all the government records of all the countries in which you’re an international correspondent? No. Wouldn’t your life be more effective, wouldn’t information transfer be better, if all the information was online? Absolutely. What about all those premium services? I’m thinking of, like, the LexisNexis types. Wouldn’t it be nice if some of that information were online and available in an integrated form? Maybe you’d have to pay for it in some way, we haven’t figured it out yet. … The mission of the company is [retrieving] all of the world’s information. It’s not all the world’s information currently available on the Web, it’s all of the world’s information. So what I do is I sit down every day and I think about, `What information do I need to get through the day and why isn’t it on Google?’ And, you know, you just lop one [thing] off after another.”

Professional Reading Shelf
Information Industry–OCLC
Full-Text: OCLC Annual Report, 2000-2001
72 pages .pdf

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items)
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Highway–Statistics–United States
Source: Federal Highway Administration
Full-Text, New Edition: Highway Statistics 2000
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Agriculture–Thesaurus
Controlled Vocabularies
Source: National Library of Agriculture
Updated: NAL Agricultural Thesaurus

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (3 Items)
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United States Government–2003 Budget
Full-Text: Budget of the United States, FY 2003 and Supporting Documents
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Education–United States–Statistics
Source: The Education Trust
Ed Watch Interactive State & National Data Site
From the site, “…data on educational performance and equity by race and class, kindergarten through college. Through this site, users can select, access and compare the state and national data that form the core of Ed Watch reporting.”
See Also: Addtional resources including statistical summaries for all 50 states
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Women-Owned Business–United States–Statistics
Source: Center for Women’s Business Research
Women-Owned Businesses in 2002: Trends in the US and Top Metro Areas
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text
Minority Women-Owned Businesses in the United States, 2002
Summary ||| Direct to Full-Text
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Advertising–United States
Streaming Media: Watch All of This Years Super Bowl Ads
All 59 commercials are available for you to watch on the web.

Digital Collections (2 Items)
War Posters
Source: University of Minnesota
A Summons To Comradeship: World War I and World War II Posters
From the site, “A new project, commencing in Fall of 2001. Approximately 100 posters from both World Wars are online. By October 2003, this database will contain more than 6,000 images.”
See Also: Read about the project in this Minneapolis Star-Tribune article.
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Canada
Source: Canada’s Digital Collections
Seven New Collections From Canada’s Digital Collections Now Online

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents
Philanthropy–E-Mail Alerts
New From The Foundation Center: Research Update E-Mail Alert
From an e-mail message, “…updates about new research findings by e-mail!…a fast and convenient way to keep up to date on the Foundation Center’s latest research on U.S. foundations and their giving.”

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents
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Documents in the News–Enron Crisis
Full-Text: The Powers Report (via Houston Chronicle)
Powers Report (via the NY Times)
Note: The report is a 10MB .pdf file.
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Newsmakers–Interviews–Streaming Media
Access an Archive of Charlie Rose Show Interviews
The Charlie Rose Show airs nightly on public television here in the U.S. Rose conducts interviews with newsmakers, business leaders, authors, educators, politicians, and entertainers. This archive (audio only) provides streaming coverage of content back to October 29, 2001. Here are just a few examples of the interviews you’ll find in the archive:
Former Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Chairman Arthur Levitt (1/28/01)
Former Disney President Mike Ovitz (1/23/01)
Filmmaker Ridley Scott (1/15/02)
Author Lawrence Lessig (1/4/02)
Film Director Ron Howard (12/28/01)
NY Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.(12/11/01)
Columnist William Safire (10/28/01)
AOL Time Warner’s Stephen Case (10/27/01)
Intel’s Andrew Grove (10/15/01)
Iranian President Khatami (10/9/01)
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams (10/2/01)

Information Industry–CQ
Information Industry–LexisNexis
Strategic Alliance Report: Today, CQ & LexisNexis
From the announcement, “Congressional Quarterly, Inc. and LexisNexis Group today announced a strategic alliance whereby LexisNexis, the leading global provider of authoritative legal and business research information, will become the exclusive distribution partner for CQ’s premier content on Congress, politics and public policy…In addition to being available through LexisNexis, this CQ content will continue to be distributed electronically through CQ.com OnCongress…As part of the arrangement, LexisNexis announced that it will discontinue its own legislative tracking service, called LexisNexis Political Universe.”
See Also: “LexisNexis to Distribute Congressional Quarterly Content” (via Information Today)

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents (2 Items)
Tobacco Control
New: Legacy Tobacco Documents Library
From the announcement, “The UCSF Library and Center for Knowledge Management today released on the internet the Legacy Tobacco Documents Library, a collection of more than 20 million previously secret documents from tobacco industry files. The documents represent the world’s largest public digital collection maintained by a library.”
Thanks to S.C. for the news tip.
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Trade Statistics–Canada–Database
Invisible Web
Source: Industry Canada
Update: New From the Canadian Trade Data Online Database
From a recently received e-mail:
1) Trade data by industry is now available on a NAICS (North American Industry Classification System) basis. Industry level data by SIC
(Standard Industrial Classification) codes are still available for historical purposes, but are no longer regularly updated.
2) With respect to trade data by product, 4 digit level HS (Harmonized System) data have now been added to supplement the 2 and 6 digit level data previously available.
Data found in this dbase is supplied by Statistics Canada and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Professional Reading Shelf (3 Items)
U.S. Government–Databases
Source: Searcher
“Digital Government: Digital Tools for the Electronic Dissemination of Government Information”
Reviews of FirstGov and American FactFinder by Laura Gordon-Murnane.
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Opinion
Web Search–Google
Source: Searcher
“Google: (v.)…”
Barbara Quint discusses Google from a “parts of speech” angle.
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Library of Congress Classification–History
Source: NewBreed Librarian
A Reference Librarian’s Take on Library of Congress Classification
A very interesting and informative article for all librarians. It was written by Robin Paynter, a reference librarian at the University of Oregon. A

Special Section: Lists & Rankings (2 Items)
Public Libraries–United Kingdom–Lists & Rankings
Source: The Guardian
Books Being Borrowed From the Library: U.K.
From the site, “The annual PLR figures listing the most popular authors and books in public libraries across the UK last year have just been released…”
See Also: Related Article and Background Via (The Guardian)
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Books–Lists & Rankings
Music–Lists & Rankings
DVD’s–Lists & Rankings
Movers & Shakers: What’s Hot at Amazon.Com
“The Movers & Shakers index identifies–by product group–the biggest gainers in sales rank at Amazon.com in the past 24 hours.” The lists are updated hourly.