Web Resource of the Week
SIC (Standard Industrial Classification) Codes Database from D&B, 8 Digit Capability!
A couple of weeks ago we noted a business directory from D&B. It’s part of a fee-based service but using it to find phone numbers and addresses is free. In many cases this dbase also offers some value added info like top executive names and headquarter identification. This week, another high use database, D&B’s SIC Search providing SIC Codes to the 8 digit level! It’s searchable by either keywords or SIC code. Also available (free) to browse or download are tables of 4 digit SIC codes.

The Internet Archive–Internet Filtering
Source: Library Journal
“Internet Filters Block Wayback Machine”
From the article, The vast Wayback Machine, an ingenious service to Internet users, provides snapshots of past iterations of current web sites as well as sites that no longer exist. However, as activist Seth Finkelstein discovered, various Internet filter programs (or, as some call it, “censorware”) block access to the archive.”
See Also: Direct to Seth Finkelstein’s Investigation

Web Search–Google
Source: Newsbytes
“Google Turns Away Robots From Its Front Door”
Comment: This Newbytes article (linked above) contains information that is most likely old news for many of you. Webmasters and page creators have used the method described in this article to block spiders from crawling/indexing a site or a specific portion of a site for many years. We often refer to this content as the “opaque web”, material that is technically crawlable, but for one or more reasons (ie. the webmaster decides to have it excluded by using the robots.txt protocol) is not accessible via a general-purpose search engine. Numerous other reasons exist to make material not accessible via a general purpose engine. Many of these illustrate the need to make use of specialized search services. More on this topic later. In some cases you can view the robots.txt file itself and find out what content is not being crawled by entering the web page address and then asking to see the file (http://www..com/robots.txt).
Here are a few examples:
Washington Post
This robots.txt file includes a complete block to the spider for the Internet Archive.
Environmental Protection Agency
London School of Economics
Material found in the images directory is not to be crawled.
See Also: “Google’s Unidexed URL’s (via Search Engine Showdown)

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents
New/Updated Reports from the Congressional Research Service
It’s time for another look at a selection of new and or updated reports from the CRS. To access these full-text reports(.pdf) head to this page from Rep. Christopher Shays (R-CT) or this page from Rep. Mark Green (R-WI). Then, select/click the appropriate category and scroll to the report. Here are a few selected new and/or recently updated reports.
Issue Briefs
IB93056 Bosnia: U.S. Military Operations (Updated 3/5/02)
IB10045 Broadband Internet Access: Background and Issues (Updated 3/4/02)
IB82008 Israeli-United States Relations (Updated 3/19/02)
IB92052 Palestinians and Middle East Peace: Issues for the United States (Updated 3/19/02)
IB92089 Russia (Updated 3/6/02)
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Short Reports
RS21120 Auditing and Its Regulators: Proposals for Reform after Enron (Updated 3/19/02)
RS21136 Government Spending or Tax Reduction: Which Might Add More Stimulus to the Economy? (Updated 3/13/02)
RS21142 Status of Trade Legislation in the 107th Congress (Updated 3/13/02)
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Long Reports
RL30329 Current Economic Conditions and Selected Forecasts (Updated 3/21/02)
RL30052 Telephone Bills: Charges on Local Telephone Bills (Updated 3/13/02)
See Also: A New Research Report from the Parliamentartary Library, House of Commons, Australia
“Terrorism and The Law in Australia”
“Terrorism and The Law in Australia: Supporting Materials”

Resources, Tools, and Full-Text Documents
E-Learning
Source: Financial Times
Full-Text, FT Survey: Understanding E-Learning

One Year Ago in the VAS&ND
Newspapers–Online
Source: New York Times
The New York Times Launches Site For College Students and Faculty
“College Times” offers several features including a “Yahoo like” directory of news content and an e-mail alerting service. You will need to be a registered NYT user to access the full content.

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 28th, 2002 and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.